The STFC Hartree Centre in the UK will host a Hackathon for coders, developers, designers, entrepreneurs and start-ups in May. The event will take place May 18-20 at the Hartree Centre in Cheshire.
In partnership with IBM Watson, the Hartree Hack will put the latest cognitive technologies directly into the hands of attendees. Participants will learn from the experts about what IBM Watson APIs (application programming interfaces) can offer them and how to use them, create their first cognitive app and compete to win £25k of support from STFC to propel their idea forward to a market reality over just three days.
The cognitive computing era has arrived – an era where computers can be taught instead of just programmed, where you can get deeper insights from data to come up with new solutions to problems,” said Karen Lee, Head of Impact and Engagement at STFC’s Hartree Centre and the Hartree Hack. “We’re delighted, through our strategic collaboration with IBM, to provide this superb opportunity for participants to get their hands on Watson technology and gain invaluable mentoring from experts at Hartree and IBM. Whether you want to pursue an entirely new idea, have a business challenge, or you just like coding, the Hartree Hack will provide the platform and skills for you to build apps on any domain of your interest, with the chance to collaborate with like-minded people, be they entrepreneurs, academics or expert coders.”
The Hartree Centre accelerates the use of high performance computing, data science, big data analytics and cognitive techniques to solve industrial and research challenges. The Hartree Hack provides those taking part with the opportunity to benefit very quickly from the tools and expertise available at the Centre.
Participants of the Hartree Hack can come solo to form a team, or come as a team, and will be fully supported as they create their innovative applications using IBM Watson’s suite of API services, which are specifically designed to facilitate rapid development of applications in the cloud. A full tour of how to use IBM Bluemix, which incorporates Watson’s language, vision, speech and data platforms will be given, and expert support and mentoring will be available throughout the event.
We now live in an ‘API economy’ where anyone with a vision can rapidly deploy ground-breaking applications without the need for huge capital investment in IT infrastructure, nor an army of software developers,” said Phil Westcott, European Ecosystem Leader at IBM Watson. “This is allowing small businesses to compete and disrupt in every industry. The HartreeHack will enable entrepreneurs and developers to rapidly prototype cognitive solutions powered by the Watson API services. We hope everyone taking part will leave empowered by with a new range of skills, knowledge and passion for building cognitive applications.”
Participation for the Hartree Hack is free, but advance registration is essential and must be received by April 27 at the latest.
