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Murdoch University gets hackathon bragging rights

Digitised heavy vehicle number plate concept up for further assessment

 

Western Australia’s innovative effort at bringing its brightest minds to bear on a heavy vehicle issue is to take the next step.

Underwritten by the state’s Department of Transport Driver and Vehicle Services and transport and innovation minister Bill Marmion and supported by the WA industry, a ‘hackathon’ was organised last month to come up with a new kind of heavy vehicle number plate.

Dubbed the ‘Smart Plate’, it is to be a self-powered, digitised heavy vehicle number plate that has global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and global system for mobile communication (GSM) network connectivity.

Each of the nine teams involved submitted their design idea and provided a presentation on their proposed Smart Plate solution to a judging panel of industry and subject matter experts. 

The effort was followed by an awards night at the Cisco Internet of Everything Innovation Centre (CIIC) at the Curtin University campus.

Murdoch University Team 1 (Robert Pezzaniti, Josephine Brain, Andrew Forbes and Radek Sebesta) took home the $10,000 first prize. 

A commendation was awarded to Curtin University Team 2(Amir Rajabifar, Bryan Kwok, Joshua Morley, Christian Brunette and Jordan Truswell).

“The hackathon provided an opportunity for cross sector collaboration and a condensed, practical learning experience for the students,” a department spokesperson says.

“The design concepts will now be reviewed further to assess opportunities for a prototype.

“A hackathon is an event, typically lasting several days, in which a large number of people meet to engage in collaborative computer programing or to build or design something. 

“The intent of this hackathon was to explore the viability of the Smart Plate concept to enable Government to initiate a range of safety-driven, access and productivity initiatives for heavy vehicles.”

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