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Collaborative creativity
Hacking a path to innovation
Dec 18, 2015 | CT - Corporate Technology Carolyn Joiner
Lasting from noon to noon, the 24-hour Princeton hackathon provided a stimulating environment for teams comprised of
engineers, support staff and designers, as well as programmers and scientists.
Siemens has some of the brightest, most innovative minds of our time. To capitalize
on this, Corporate Technology’s US hub in Princeton, New Jersey recently welcomed
employees from business units across the country to collaborate and develop
concepts or projects capable of creating new opportunities for Siemens businesses.
Some of the world’s most well-known technologies and software features – including Facebook’s
now ubiquitous “like” button – were conceived in Hackathons, or “hack marathons,” during
which groups of people collaborated to develop novel concepts or ideas.
“The Hackathon is all about collaborating, being innovative and doing our part to energize
Siemens’ Vision 2020,” said Kurt Bettenhausen, Head of the Automation & Control Technology
Field at Corporate Technology US (CT US). “To do that, we wanted to broaden it from a
Corporate Technology event to a Siemens event, creating even more of a community to fuel
creative ideas.”
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2. Innovation marathon
Lasting from noon to noon, the 24-hour Hackathon provided an energetic, stimulating
environment for the teams, which were comprised of members from various functions, ranging
from engineers, support staff and designers to programmers and scientists. To ensure all hackers
were on a level playing field, the rules required that all code be created at the Hackathon. No
previous codebases were allowed, with the exception of publicly-available frameworks and
open-source code that had been available for at least one month.
The Hackathon also featured presentations that highlighted the importance of innovation for
Siemens’ technological future and distinguished guest speakers, who also served on the panel of
judges.
Once the Hackathon ended, teams presented their ideas to the judges, employing use cases and
brief demonstrations to describe potential benefits to Siemens businesses. Projects were judged
based on three criteria: originality, execution & implementation, and business potential. After a
careful review by the judges’ panel, the top three teams were selected.
The teams visited Washington, D.C. and presented their projects to Eric Spiegel, President and
CEO of Siemens USA, who determined the ultimate champion: SINET.
Remote inspections using cloud-based data analytics
A smart IR camera inspection platform, SINET presented a compelling pitch and business plan, as
well as a detailed demonstration of how it could help Siemens improve the performance of its
customers’ facilities. The team consists of Zhen Song, Rizwan Majeed, Guannan Ren, and Zhi
Zhang from Corporate Technology, and Patrick Matos from Siemens Healthcare.
SINET’s driving principle is that while most hardware eventually becomes a commodity, service
has proven to be a key factor in terms of differentiating Siemens and protecting its profit margin.
With this in mind, participants have crafted a technology that can combine ubiquitous mobile
devices with cloud-based data analytics to replace manual analysis of anomalous temperatures
and vibrations. Applications cover a full range of areas from transformers and gas turbines to
power lines and buildings.
And the runners up were…
OVERCASTIC – A new offering for customers featuring interactive visual management with low
cost to entry and a customizable management system. This project was developed by William
Strickland, William Dunn, Joseph Orlando, Rodney Anderson, and Jacob Osterhout, all from
Global Services, Information Technology.
H@ck4B33r – An app that enables Siemens’ new cyber security operation center to remotely
monitor customers’ plants, hardware and software configurations and detect, classify, and
respond to any variations in normal plant data patterns. This team incorporated John Crawford,
Bardak Kaan, Jarrod Johnson, Martin Kunz, and Lesley Morgan all from Digital Factory.
In addition, a People’s Choice Award, chosen by the staff in attendance at the demonstrations,
recognized Siemax, a personalized autonomous robot buddy. The Siemax team comprised Arun
Innanje, Ankur Kapor and Ziyan Wu from Healthcare and Vivek Singh and Kai Ma from Corporate
Technology.
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Stay tuned!
CT US extends an open invitation to all divisions and business units to participate in the 2016
Siemens US Hackathon, which will be held in April at the Princeton facility. Collaborate with
Siemens colleagues to develop what could be the foundation of the next groundbreaking
Siemens innovation! Eric Spiegel, President and CEO of Siemens USA, will return to judge the
finalists and choose the top team. Stay tuned for details!
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