Lobster, Rescues, Garbage and more at PEI Hacks!

August 30, 2013

The first PEI Hacks hackathon hosted by the PEI Developers is in the books. This was an amazing day where a group of over 30 software developers came together for 8 intense hours to create working applications at the Holman Centre in Summerside, PEI.

Friday, August 23rd 20:00:00 - The Social

The weekend started off with a social night pulled together by Ryan Palmer and his signature Big Yellow beer at the Queen Street Commons.

The evening of visiting, drinking and snacking set the tone for what was to be an epic weekend of code.

Saturday, August 24th 10:00:00- The Convergence of Nerds

Road trip to #PEI for #PEIHacks Saturday @PEIHacks This will be a fun event, I'm looking forward to it. Nerds+Beer+Wifi=Hacketon.
— Gaetan Savoie (@thegman) August 21, 2013

Heading to @PEIHacks, should be fun. #PEIHacks
— Shane Pelletier (@ShaneMPell) August 24, 2013

The power bars were in place. The network was spewing packets through the air. The chairs were congregated together and the coffee had arrived. It was time to open the doors as the builders arrived; flooding the space with creativity and drive.

Coming to #peihacks ? Doors are open, coffee is here. @PEIHacks
— Bob Shand (@feralbob) August 24, 2013

It was time to begin.

Saturday, August 24th - 11:00:00 - I Got 99 Problems and a Pitch Ain’t 1

The format of the day was laid out and the pitches were made. It was a simple day - pitch all the things, hackers put their name on the pitches they like best, teams are formed and away they code!

#peihacks nancy from Halifax pitching! pic.twitter.com/t7VtEnDVPT
— Dustin W. Sparks (@dustin_sparks) August 24, 2013

Saturday, August 24th 12:00:00 - Hack

The teams formed, lunch was served and brainstorming soon led to code. Over the next nine hours six teams were heads down and focused on creating the best apps possible. Here is what happened.

When Is Garbage?

code: https://github.com/indiecore/WhenIsGarbage

This team tackled the problem of missing garbage day. They solved the problem by notifying users the night before their garbage will be collected. By correlating the user’s address with a municipal database of civic addresses, the app will send an SMS message or tweet as a notification. Being done is always a good feeling!

Finished #peihacks #peidevs
— Kris Gay (@indiec0re) August 25, 2013

Search and Rescue Callout

App in action: gsar.herokuapp.com

Code: github.com/brndmg/gsar

Meet my #PEIHacks team at @PEIHacks Great event and #fun experience! cc: @matty_simms @mgt_developer @NickFitz582 pic.twitter.com/F4zjzDw2pw
— Gaetan Savoie (@thegman) August 24, 2013

Ground Search and Rescue typically has a hierarchy of a search commander, operators, and searchers. This app flattens that hierarchy by broadcasting messages directly to searchers, using lat/long as a rendezvous point. For technology, this app uses Twitter Bootstrap, Mongo DB, Node.js, and a RESTful architecture.

Our #PEIHacks @PEIHacks working MVP prototype: http://t.co/dW3kFhO6zf Technologies used: node.js, Heroku, mongolab, @Twilio
— Gaetan Savoie (@thegman) August 25, 2013

Lobster Peddlr

code: http://github.com/rypalmer/peddlr

Not only did Ryan Palmer provide the refreshments, he also worked on a team for the day that delivered a very polished app. On PEI, lobster fisherman sell direct to consumers from trucks in transient locations (e.g. a parking lot). Buyers are enthusiastic about fresh lobster at direct prices, but may have difficulty locating the sellers. This app matches buyers and sellers by allowing each to register their location. For tech, the app uses Django and a responsive design for mobile devices.

Don’t Feed the Meter

code: https://github.com/matt-sprypoint/DontFeedTheMeter

The idea behind this app is to thwart parking-meter readers by publishing their recent location and direction. “Spies” can enter the position of their car when they see a meter reader, so that others know when to “top up” their meter. This app uses the Typesafe stack and the Play framework (in Java) on the backend.

Search and Rescue Heads Up Display

This teams task was to aid the search and rescue crew in the field. In order to accomplish this goal, their project featured a gadget: the glorius Recon Instruments Heads-Up Display (HUD) (link: http://www.reconinstruments.com/). The HUD attaches to glasses (e.g. ski goggles) and displays information about the person being rescued. The rescuer would have a photo of the lost person along with their age, description and the rescuers position relative to the last known GPS location. Aside from the device, tech included Spring on the back-end, and Android Studio.

Grind (aka Tap)

code: https://github.com/PEIHacksGrind/grind

Most modern games consist of the gameplay element accompanied by a grinding element to level/gear up. This team decided to build a game that took away all gameplay and just left the grind. This resulted in gloriously simple and addictive Android game. This game was distilled from loftier goals by a team who boldly and bravely dove into the Android space for the first time. The game features a minimalist UI (two buttons) and frenzied action that will test the resiliency of any device. We’ve seen it in action!

That’s a wrap

The day started in a big room full of strangers. The day ended in the same big room, but where once strangers stood there were cohesive teams each offering up their creations for the first time to the world. The first PEI Hacks was an amazing event that offered up even more impressive inventions. Thank you to everyone who came out and built something awesome for a day.