Singapore team ‘Wombat’ wins Accenture’s first globally connected hackathon

• Will present their idea at Expo 2020 Dubai’s Expo Live for a chance to receive a grant
• In Singapore, the event had 47 participants in ten teams

ACCENTURE, with the support of Expo 2020 Dubai, has selected a team from Singapore as global winner of its first connected digital hackathon.

The event challenged participants to develop innovative digital solutions that improve urban living conditions, support more inclusive populations, and promote sustainable urban practices.

It took place simultaneously in Singapore and ten other cities across four continents on Nov 11 and 12.

The global winner, team “Wombat” from Singapore, developed a prototype for an early warning system to detect and prevent outbreaks of dengue fever and other vector-borne diseases.

• Named “Dragonfly,” the system attracts arthropods such as mosquitoes and identifies their species.
• As part of their presentation at the hackathon, the team created a model of a flytrap that uses blue light to attract mosquitoes.
• Leveraging Internet of Things technology, the system transmits the breed of arthropod species and sends the relevant data to the health authorities for further analysis.

Expo 2020 Dubai’s Expo Live judges shortlisted Dragonfly, giving it the opportunity to be presented at the next round of the Expo Live “Innovation Impact Grant Programme” for a chance to receive a grant worth up to US$100,000, as well as business development support and exposure.

Close to 500 recent graduates, undergraduates, entrepreneurs, and individuals from start-ups in more than 100 teams participated in the hackathon across 11 cities (Bangalore, Chicago, Dubai, Istanbul, London, Manila, Mexico City, Monterrey, Rome, Shanghai, Singapore). In Singapore, the event had 47 participants in ten teams.

Other top global teams and ideas:

• Ranked second across all participating cities, team “Apostle” from Chicago created a brain-to-speech Artificial Intelligence companion that uses neural network deep learning to help speech-impaired people communicate with others.
• Team “O.A.S.I.S.” from Dubai ranked third globally. Its prototype of an Internet of Things (IoT) platform, named “Hardware to Optimise (H2O)” helps conserve water. Using predictive analytics and machine learning, it analyses data from water meters, displays consumption, and provides recommendations to users in real time.

A panel of jurors ranked the solutions based on their innovative potential, quality, and completeness of the prototype, usability and functional scope as well as how the teams presented them to the jury.

Jurors included experienced digital professionals from Accenture, Expo 2020 Dubai, local sponsors, and academia.

Patrick de Moustier, managing director and Accenture Digital lead for Asean said, “We believe collaboration and creativity are critical to drive digital disruption in today‘s world. We were very impressed by the variety of ideas and the enthusiasm shown by all the participants to tackle the challenge. I would like to thank all participants for the effort and commitment they have demonstrated at this exciting event.”