Hackagon has come and gone in a wave of fabulous creativity

Hackagong 3d printingWollongong’s Hackagong was on last weekend and by all accounts was a great success. It certainly looks like fabulous, geeky fun from the photos.

Hackagong attracted over 100 competitors across 34 teams, competing in nine different category competitions from game development to 3D printing, and over 150 people were in attendance during the weekend. According to the organisers, who might want to get out of Wollongong a bit more, “Some teams traveled from as far away as Canberra and Melbourne to compete!”

The overall winner was Peereo (Matt Stimson, John Redwood, Yetrina Battad) –  an education and networking platform. “The platform is designed to improve primary and secondary school teacher effectiveness, as well as offer them new sources of career and professional development. As a by-product the service produces free, world-class content for all students.” That’s not a bad ambition; and if it’s the sort of thing Hackagong can encourage then good things are coming out of our Southern neighbour.

At, perhaps, a less ambitious level, the category I was particularly interested in was 3D printing. The winners of the the Most Innovative 3D-Printed Object were QUAD Team with an object that combines the agility and maneuverability of a quadrocopter with the lift and flight time of a fixed wing aircraft. Although I must say I was even more taken with the description of one of the other entrants: 3D printed all in one fold-up table top post-apocalyptic truck game.

I love the idea of Hackagong. Small teams of clever people coming together to create amazing things, whether they be ideas or objects, over a weekend. And looking at what was created over thirty hours last weekend these are very clever people. Kudos to all involved.

All of the top teams and prize winners are detailed on the Hackaong website.

Image: Hackagong.

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