Bigas2Hack : 2nd Annual Rice Hackathon at IRRI

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The sequel to last year's highly successful Bigas Hackathon- is an event for hacktivists and programming aficionados who are willing to use their much-in-demand skills to benefit the world. IRRI's hackathons bring together young IT whizzes to spend two days.

The next big tech push for rice is slated to come on 31 August-1 September 2013 as the International Rice Research Institute gears up for the Bigas2 Hack—the sequel to last year's hugely successful BigAs Hackathon—an event for developers and programming aficionados who are willing to use their highly sought skills to benefit the world.

IRRI’s hackathons bring together young IT whizzes to spend two days developing an IT-based solution to a rice research problem. Last year’s event involved 57 developers from the Philippines. This year, the plan is to engage more people from the Philippines and beyond.
 

Bigas2 Hack is co-organized by Smart Communications, Inc. and Smart DevNet.
 
PhilRobotics, the winning team in 2012, came up with Envilog, a portable device that can take readings of temperature, rainfall, wind speed, wind direction, amount of sunlight, atmospheric pressure, humidity, and water height in rice fields.

Bigas2 Hack comes as part of the list of activities lined-up by IRRI towards rice sector development and in celebrating 2013 as the National Year of Rice.

This year's hackathon will formally allow interested participants to incubate their ideas longer, and then take it even further by developing prototypes.
  

The Birds of IRRI Photo Exhibit : Revisiting Los Banos, Laguna

Wazzup Pilipinas!

An email coming from an IRRI staff excited me that day because it was another opportunity to get out of Metro Manila and visit Los Banos, Laguna. My first visit there - attending a Hackathon - gave me great memories, and I'm glad the IRRI people remembered me because I would like to have beautiful memories again.

Without any hesitation, I immediately replied and eventually we were able to arrange for transportation to take me and a few of my Wazzup Pilipinas family of bloggers to IRRI's Photo Exhibit of Birds.

That's me! Eventhough the invite was just for me, I always make it a point to share the experience with my peers. To share the blessings with my fellow bloggers who would also like the opportunity to witness a very noble program ran by great people who aim for the greatness of our country.

IRRI Riceworld Museum and Learning Center : Everything About Rice

There's this great museum that you can find in Los Banos, Laguna and its located at the premises of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). They call it the RiceWorld Museum and Learning Center where it showcases everything about rice, rice and rice.

I was at IRRI for two days attending an event sponsored by them and a Telecoms company (SMART), and had the opportunity to wander around their impressive museum. The collection of old equipment and tools that can be found at the museum were fascinating and quite a historical experience.

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.

BIGAS Hackathon 2012

HACKATHONS are everywhere!!! Here’s another one from SMART DevNet.

BIGAS Hackathon is a two-day developer event and hackathon hosted by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and Smart Communications, Inc.(Smart) and powered by SMART Developer Network (SMART DevNet), the developer community for Smart’s technology platform.

 

We’re inviting existing and aspiring developers to create a web and/or mobile app that can be used to further enhance the impact of IRRI technologies especially in their delivery to farmers.We’re looking for web and mobile apps which could help solve some of IRRI’s toughest problems. The challenges could be in such areas as:

· Improving the collection and study of research data
· Providing information and/or technologies to farmers or extension workers
· Indexing library and other institute data
· Improving institute processes and procedures
· Storing survey data better, or speeding up survey data processing
· Designing a digital moisture meter etc.

 So if you’re interested, REGISTER NOW!

http://bigashackathon.eventbrite.com/