Click, click, clack!

Dozens of engineering students, software developers, entrepreneurs, designers and tech enthusiasts ferociously typed away at their keyboards, racing to come up with "the project" that would herald a new era of smart transportation systems for the smart cities of the future – in just under 24 hours.

The İzmir Transport Hackathon, held between March 6-7 to support the city's entrepreneurship ecosystem and encourage innovation and economic growth, saw 28 teams made up of roughly four to six people gather at the Historical Coal Gas Factory-turned cultural center in Alsancak in sunny İzmir to produce solutions for an environmentally friendly, sustainable, innovative and inclusive transportation network in the western metropolis.

There were so many projects that were forward-thinking and really pushed the limits, from live help apps that incorporated artificially intelligence screening and chatbots to blockchain technology; however, three teams’ projects came out victorious. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) goodwill ambassador and Turkish actor Mert Fırat and fellow actor and voice artist Toprak Sergen presented at the award ceremony.

In first place came team Metrobot, who developed a user-oriented, artificial intelligence-based application to be used in processes related to the city’s transportation system. In second was Team 256, whose EagleEye app analyzed crowdedness in metro stations with mathematical data and offered optimized dynamic timelines for more efficient deployment of vehicles. Esvision took third place with its warning system that worked like traffic lights to regulate and divert passenger traffic during boarding and landing at railway stations. The groups took home TL 15,000, TL 10,000 and TL 5,000 as prizes, respectively.

The software hackathon was centered around the five following themes: