Winners of the Bigas (Big Ass) Hackathon

Congratulations to the PhilRobotics A Team with their App named Envilog for winning the Most Innovative App award. The team is composed of Franklin Binos II, Richard Myrick Arelaga, Johnaray Dimaunahan, and Wayne Dell Manuel.

Envilog is a stand-alone temperature and humidity sensor with real-time GSM-based data sending and offline data collection and web-based visualization.

IRRI will host this team for another week so they can create the actual app!

From the YouTube video uploads of the event:

"During a 2-day event (10-11 November 2012), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI; http://irri.org) and wireless services provider Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart; http://www1.smart.com.ph/about/meet/corporate-profile) called on all mobile developers to create and pitch Web and/or mobile applications that could be the next big tech push for rice farming.

In celebration of National Rice Awareness Month, IRRI and Smart through its developer community program Smart Developer Network (Smart DevNet; http://smartdevnet.wordpress.com/2012/11/11/and-the-winners-of-the-first-ever...) staged the "BIGAS Hackathon", which was a developer event that aimed to churn out apps that can further enhance the impact of rice production technologies."

Best Research Data Collection App was won by team Love Team with their the IsWater app. It features automatic data gathering of a soil's water level using sensors and then notifies farmers/researchers a via mobile app. This team was developed by Arvin Orubia, Michelle Aldave, Drexie de Leon, and Cherryl Opon.

The Best Game App was won by team composed of Bryan Bibat and Alvin Edward Chan. They call it Araro (plow or plowing the rice fields) This text-based simulation game based and streamlined on RiceGrow can be found at http://araro.karaniwan.org.

The Best Farmer Info Technology App goes to Team Libra composed of Joan Antonette Bautista, Jason-Bourne Escolano Manzala, John Louis Perez, and Raymond Balingit. Binhi is a Rice Variety Picker app that aims to aid farmers in choosing the most suitable variety on factors like season, irrigation, type, etc.

 

The hackathon event was actually held at the IRRI library where they had to "rearrange" the area previously occupied as a library containing books and other literature.However, the organizers introduction, team presentations, and awarding ceremonies were held at the IRRI Museum and Learning Center auditorium.

App development or "hacking" started at 2 pm of November 10, 2012 until 2 pm the next day, November 11, 2012. However, the participants were requested to transfer to a hotel venue (Boy Scouts of the Philippines new 3-month old hotel located at the Jamboree road) from 1 am to 7 pm, and continued at the IRRI library from 7 am until 10 am.

Awarding at the IRRI Museum and Learning Center auditorium ended sometime at around 3 pm.Participants, guests, judges and organizers were then shuttled back in Makati.