ATLAS Hack Virtual Hackathon concludes with showcase of innovation, talent

• Virtual hackathon conducted through interactive virtual event platform
• Team Visi crowned champion with their contactless medication vending project

INNOVATIVE ideas and promising talent. Those were on prominent display at the recently-concluded ATLAS Hack Virtual Hackathon, Malaysia’s first “Smart Retail Hackathon” that was held from March 5 to 7, with its Grand Finals on March 13.

ATLAS Hack, which was organised by ATLAS Vending in partnership with corporate innovation outfit JomHack Malaysia, saw 35 teams competing to create innovative solutions based on four major challenges, as well as various “bounty ideas” to work towards. The teams competed for the prize pool of US$6,403 (RM25,600) in cash prizes.

[RM1 = US$0.241]

The top 3 teams walked away with RM10,000, RM5,000 and RM2,500 respectively. The remaining top 10 teams (4th to 7th) received a RM300 consolation prize each, while 3 bounty prizes of RM2,000 each were also given to the teams who best executed the bounty ideas given by ATLAS Vending.

ATLAS Hack was created to seek solutions for the retail industry, which has been severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Specifically, there is a pressing need to make vending machines more automated to reduce manual labour, and to provide contactless purchasing experience for customers to remain safe during the pandemic.

“We know that there are so many incredible tech talents in this country and it is time for ATLAS Vending to create more programmes to engage these talents and work with them to create better opportunities for Malaysian talents, while improving our retail ecosystem,” said Amy Gan, the head of Marketing and Ancillary Sales of ATLAS Vending.

“The participants at ATLAS Hack 2021 were really amazing, and developed highly innovative projects that we are keen to explore further. We would love to implement and commercialise some of the winning ideas and even offer job opportunities to some of the talented participants.”

Emerging as champions is Team Visi. Members Vincent Wong, Edison Tan and Vee Han impressed judges with their contactless medication vending machine project. Coming in second place is Team Veo and their contactless, gesture-based purchasing solution. Team UpAI clinched the third spot with their version of a face-recognition purchasing solution.

The bounty prizes went to teams 404 Not Found, BorneoHackers and Veo for working on the suggested bounty ideas and executing them well.

The three-day virtual hackathon was conducted through an interactive virtual event platform, where teams were guided by highly experienced mentors from both ATLAS Vending and JomHack to help them finish up their projects on time.

For ATLAS Vending, ATLAS Hack was a success and an excellent start for the company in actively engaging the tech community of Malaysia. They are looking forward to organising more similar events in the future.