Virtual hackathon “HackForce” offers a prize fund of 36 000 EUR
Hackathon “HackForce” aims to address the challenges posed by the coronavirus crisis by mobilizing volunteer resources at the community level. Hackathon is held on March 17-19 and is organized by volunteers from the start-up community.
Organizers of the virtual hackathon “HackForce” report that there are currently 500 participants from 18 countries who have submitted over 70 creative ideas. Throughout the hackathon, all participants will have a chance to work with 44 mentors representing areas such as business and software development, innovation and technology, engineering, 5G technology, medicine, and more.
By contacting the government, hackathon organizers have gathered information on issues that hackathon members might be able to solve - records of places where medical resources such as masks and disinfectants are available; creative solutions to improve remote working and learning processes; software and online counseling platforms to help distribute a large volume of incoming counseling calls; tools to help monitor and limit fake news that cause additional anxiety to citizens; websites that provide accurate information to the Russian-speaking population of the country; opportunities to deliver food, medical and other goods to seniors and other risk groups more quickly, and more.
The hackathon prize fund currently totals 36 000 euros and is designed to support the quick and successful implementation of ideas. The Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia in cooperation with the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia will award 25 000 euros to the five top hackathon teams, which will be distributed based on the potential of the ideas. In addition, Swedbank Latvia will pitch in and reward three of the hackathon teams with 1000 euros each to assure that as many ideas as possible could be implemented. “Latvian Mobile Telephone” will also award a 3 000 euro cash prize to the winning team. Organizers are also happy to announce that also Tet will support the hackathon and award 3 000 euros to the most successful idea and 1 000 euros each to two more promising ideas. The “HackForce” prize fund will be updated until its closing on March 19.
Hackathon “HackForce” is organized by volunteers from the startup community.