WA government seeks ideas for digitalised heavy vehicle number plate
More information has been provided on Western Australia’s ‘Heavy Vehicle Hackathon’.
Transport and innovation minister Bill Marmion launched the academic exercise early this month with a view to getting the state’s brightest young minds focused on an industry issue, and the concept attracted the Western Australian Road Transport Association’s (WARTA’s) full support.
“The Hackathon is a competition between four Western Australian universities to produce a design for a Smart Plate concept, which could be a digital solution for a range of safety-driven heavy vehicle access and productivity challenges,” a ministerial spokesperson says.
“The Smart Plate is a concept for a self-powered, digitised heavy vehicle number plate that has satellite and cellular network connectivity.”
Entrance into the competition was voluntary and the winning teams will receive a proportion of the $10,000 prize pool. The event is being hosted by the Cisco Internet of Everything Innovation Centre.
A hackathon is an event, typically lasting several days, in which a large number of people meet to engage in collaborative computer programming, to build or design something.
“This Hackathon is a little different, as we are not ‘hacking data’, we are interested only in discovering whether the Smart Plate concept is viable, through bringing together different people and talents and providing them with the opportunities for learning, networking, mentoring and collaboration,” the spokesperson explains.
“Hackathon’s provide an opportunity for students to explore new ways of doing things. By holding a Hackathon, the WA Government can tap in to the bright minds from Western Australian universities, providing not only a benefit to government, but also to participating students, who have the opportunity to work on real world, innovative challenges.
“The Hackathon aligns with Digital WA which is a Western Australian whole of government strategy which seeks to transform the way public services are designed, supported and delivered for a community living and working in a digital age.”
The winning Hackathon team is to be announced at an award night to be held on Friday.