V4 Hackathon, an event organized by AT&T and the Czech Telecommunication Office (ČTÚ) in Prague on 22-24 April 2016, "confirmed that the Czech Republic has an immense potential and it should not be wasted", says the Chairman of the ČTÚ Council Jaromír Novák in an article by Lupa.cz.
The event hopes to drive innovation and entrepreneurship in the Visegrád Group, or V4 region, and it was open to developers and non-developers. The mission? Create new apps to harness Connected Life in 1 of 4 categories—in just 24 hours:
Smart Cities App Challenge: Using AT&T and sponsor technologies to improve the efficiency of city services. Address issues in parking, resource management and community engagement.
Education App Challenge: Using AT&T and sponsor technologies to create an impactful education-focused app that focuses on enhancing learning in school and/or at home.
Best Use of the Czech Republic’s Open Data: Using open data from the Czech Republic’s government sources.
Best Use of CZ.NIC Open Source: Using the open source framework from the Czech Domain Name Registry – CZ.NIC.
Winners split cash prizes worth US$15,000. Five randomly selected contestants will split US$10,000 in scholarships for online Nanodegree courses. Winning teams also received mentoring from CZ.NIC, Credo Ventures, and Y Soft Ventures. In addition, five contestants selected at random each received a US$2,000 scholarship for online Nanodegree courses.
The CTU and AT&T V4 Hackathon was the first event of its kind held in the Czech Republic by the 2 host organizations. The hackathon provided contestant teams various tools to create new apps.
“This event is exactly what the V4 region needs. It’s a great opportunity to accelerate our progress in IoT area,” said Jaromír Novák, Chairman of the CTU Council. “We hope the Hackathon will offer up many successful and viable projects.”
“We’re proud to sponsor our first hackathon in the Czech Republic with CTU,” said John Vladimir Slamecka, AT&T Region President – Global Business, Europe the Middle East and Africa. “We want to inspire and empower developers to innovate. Contestants will have the opportunity to gain skills and find new ways to unlock the power of the Internet of Things.”
“Support and promotion of open source projects is one of our most important missions. Some of our own activities emerge from the enthusiasm of people who created projects in their spare time. We’ll consider the best open source projects for our CZ.NIC Labs,” said Ondřej Filip, CEO of CZ.NIC.