The Kerala Road Safety Authority will organise a two-day road safety hackathon, first of its kind in the country, at Technopark here from tomorrow noon.

The World Bank, International Financial Corporation and Axa Insurance are lending support to the event being facilitated by Group of Technology Companies of Kerala (GTech) and coordinated by AngelHack, a Silicon Valley-based global hackathon champion.

Tech solutions

The hackathon will aim at developing technology solutions – software or hardware – to promote road safety to and reduce the frequency of road accidents, said R Sreelekha, Transport and Road safety Commissioner, Kerala.

The Government of Kerala will hand-hold the developers of prototypes chosen by a judging panel to convert them into final product/programme over a period of six months.

It will enter into a memorandum of understanding with them, bear all expenses for converting the prototype, but will proceed to own the product/programme.

This will later be provided free-of-cost to the public, Sreelekha said. The World Bank and other sponsors will collaborate with the Government in the effort.

Techie crowd

The final product will be made available as software programmes, mobile/web applications, internet solutions, or even mechanical products, she said.

At least 350 people have already registered for the hackathon which will kick off from 12 pm on Saturday. It will go into the night and until 12 pm on Sunday.

Computer programmers, graphic designers, and project managers from several Technopark companies are among the techie crowd who will log in tomorrow noon.

Their skills and expertise would be leveraged to find out solutions to issues related to the four ‘E’s associated with road safety – engineering, education, enforcement and emergency response.

Parallel ideathon

Winning prototypes/ideas ranked first will receive Rs 1.90 lakh and runner-up, Rs 95,000. Each team of five submitting a project for evaluation will receive certificates.

Meanwhile, an ideathon organised as part of the hackathon and thrown open to the technology community and public at large has received 150 proposals.

Sreelekha said that the most attractive among these will be taken up for further evaluation and procedures post the hackathon event.

The future of road safety in Kerala rests with the youth, she said. This is why they are being asked to brainstorm for finding solutions to the vexed issues challenging road safety in the State which ranks among the top for road and traffic-related fatalities in the country.

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