Since the beginning of this year, 96Boards has been seen around the world. Let’s take a look at some of the impact we have made…
Mexico
In February of 2017, Mexico got to experience a 96Boards hackathon for the first time. Not only was this their first hackathon, but also their first exposure to Linaro and 96Boards. This event was hosted by the University Tecnologico de Monterrey and featured several sponsors such as Qualcomm, Accenture and of course Linaro/96Boards. Students studying Mechatronics (a mix between mechanical, electrical and computer engineering) all got to participate in the hack which focused on “Smart Homes”. You can read more about the event here. Bruno Evangelista from Qualcomm Brazil and I were in attendance and offered technical support throughout the entirety of the 48 hours event. We hope to repeat these efforts with this university and others on a annual or bi-annual basis. Student’s projects and more can be found on YouTube under the Mexico Hackathon 2017 playlist.
Hungary / Budapest
For the first time ever, Linaro decided to invite a large group of local engineers from the Hungarian Robot Association, to a “free preview day” of LINK REMOVED. The preview day took place on Thursday of the week long event, and it included two custom tailored sessions as well as an invite to the live broadcast of 96Boards OpenHours. Of the many who were invited, we had a fantastic turnout of over 25 locals! Since then we have been in close contact with the association and have seen several projects surface around 96Boards. We plan to continue our efforts in promoting and supporting the work they have done so far and plan to push forward in creating more evangelists in Hungary with the help of this association. This initiative will hopefully be replicated for future Linaro Connects. Feel free to check out the recorded video from the live broadcast.
India
For the first time ever, 96Boards hardware and Linaro software were featured during a well funded and highly anticipated hackathon in Pune and Bangalore, India (The IBM Cognitive IoT Hackathon). Each event lasted two days and drew in esteemed companies from around the region as both sponsors and participants. Companies such as Qualcomm, IBM, Arrow and TE were involved in the hackathon. Hackers were provided with a DragonBoard 410c and a custom TE sensor mezzanine to develop on. Some of our very own – Amit Kucheria and Manivannan Sadhasivam– had the chance to assist the hackers during this event, their efforts and more information can be found in a recently published 96Boards blog.
Brazil
Due to a variety of initiatives in Brazil, 96Boards and Linaro websites have seen an increase in traffic and participation coming from Brazil. Hackathons, joint tech events and university involvement has spiked interest in Linaro and 96Boards. As a whole, our community has grown both in size and strength. This is due in part to our consistent support channels, partner company involvement, staff engineers/developers who participate in community geared events and a wonderfully dedicated group of already established community members. Our humble inputs have led to generous outputs. To read more about one of the Brazilian Partnership Programs currently in motion, please visit this 96Boards blog.
USA
Over 100 students gathered and split up into teams for the once a year H.A.R.D. hackathon. Yes, this is what they call it! HKN (Eta Kappa Nu – Honors Society) and IEEE branches from the University of California San Diego joined forces to give students a chance at prizes and the thrill of a challenge. The theme was “smart homes”, and the hardware none other than 96Boards DragonBoard 410c! The event took place over the course of ~30 hours (24 hours of hack time) and pumped out over 20 amazing projects! Qualcomm and 96Boards representatives set up shop offering technical help to the hackers along with several demos and some fun swag. The event closed out with 3 winning teams and of course an invite for 96Boards to join once again the next year, see you then! These projects can be found on YouTube under the HARD Hack 2017 playlist. A slideshow full of images from the event can also be found here.
And that’s not all! As you can imagine, this is only a glimpse of what has happened and what is to come…
Where should we visit next?
What types of events are you, your universities, or your places of employment most interested in?
It looks like 2017 still has a lot in store for us, so be sure to share you ideas in the comments section below!
Don’t forget to visit us on 96Boards OpenHours, every Thursday at 4:00p UTC! See you at the end of the countdown…
