The Autodesk Forge team hosted our 2nd Forge Hackathon the week of September 27-October 1, as part of Autodesk University 2021. As the event was virtual for the second year in a row, it allowed for teams all across the world to participate and as a result we got to see some pretty cool global solutions. This year we had over 150 individuals participating, across 40+ teams over 10 time zones. These teams banded together to code Forge apps across 5 challenges, graded on the following criteria:
- Innovation: Show us an application that does something no one has seen before! The more creative, the more points you get
- Elegance: How easy is it to use your app? Is it intuitive? Does it offer a stellar user experience?
- Business problem solved: Does your solution have real world benefits? Can you deploy it live for people to use and solve their real world business problems?
- Progress made during the week: The more you can accomplish during the actual week of Sept 27 - Oct 1, the higher you score with the judges
- Depth of Forge use: How many Forge APIs and services were you able to leverage? The more you combine, and the more advanced use of the platform, the more points you can score here
- Wow factor: Is your app jaw-dropping?
The teams were busy and so were the Slack channels! We love a good hackathon at Autodesk, and had more than 50 engineers who work on the Forge platform on deck to answer attendee questions and help them get their apps up and running. We loved what we saw last year so much that we wanted to see more of it this year! Hackers could either build applications that solved an industry problem in a creative way, or just use the massive capabilities of the Forge platform to code something fun.
Once the week was over, our 5 judges had the difficult task of scoring and choosing the winners. Every team brought something special to the table, but unfortunately not everyone could be a winner. 5 well-deserving winners were chosen, as announced at the Hackathon Showcase during AU 2021.
And the winners are...
Digital Twin Your Manager
Most creative Digital Twin application
The teams that wowed us here answered these questions: How smart or innovative is your digital twin? Is it something no one has ever seen before? Bonus points were awarded for using the Data Visualization extensions for the Forge Viewer, and for making sure the digital twin is as environmentally friendly and sustainable as possible.
Out of Sao Paulo, Brazil, the winners were team Digital Twin Your Manager! They get to take home the Bose Frames for their win in this category. They connected their university tool SmartCampus, which offers IoT sensor information in 2D, to the 3D BIM model of their building, creating an interactive dashboard within the model.
CCTech Ninjas
Most innovative Task Automation app (AEC)
How many tedious, manual processes can be automated? Using the Forge Design Automation APIs helps you automate repetitive tasks, freeing up time and energy to focus on more complex workflows. We received so many submissions for this challenge that we decided to break up the challenge by industry.
The winners of the AEC task automation challenge were the CCTech Ninjas, out of Pune, India. They built a Covid Norms checker, which allows users to upload their model into the tool and automatically check to see if it meets specific criteria. For example, does the furniture meet social distancing requirements? CCTech Ninjas won shiny new Apple Watches.
Massif
Most innovative Task Automation app (MFG)
The second of our task automation winners were Massif, out of Christchurch, New Zealand. They built a configurator tool that allows designers to configure and generate their own models, as well as preview the 2D drawings that allow users to build the product themselves.
Massif also takes home shiny new Apple Watches.
Lebensretter
Best 3D Game application
The teams that took on this challenge got creative with the three.js library and built a fun game we never want to put down. Bonus points were awarded for using the Forge Viewer.
The team that won this award was Lebensretter out of India. They incorporated the Forge Viewer in their app to create a game that allows you to change the features of a buliding to create a more sustainable footprint. Lebensretter wins a brand new iPad!
SBI
Thinking outside the box with Autodesk Construction Cloud
Autodesk Construction Cloud connects workflows, teams, and data at every stage of construction to reduce risk, maximize efficiency, and increase profits. If you're tackling this challenge, you'll get to take full advantage of the team that brought you ACC. Bonus points were awarded for creating a sustainable solution.
Our winners are SBI, out of Moscow, Russia. Their demo consolidated 2d and 3d models and sped up the processing time typically caused by models with a lot of elements. SBI won the GoPro Hero 8.
Congratulations to all the winners! We hope you enjoy your prizes and can't wait to see what you build in the future with your Forge apps.
The Best of the Best
In addition to the winners of each of the challenges, we had one application that was extremely creative, unique, and wowed us all, so we awarded it the Best of the Best! This stellar app comes to us from Brazil, from the team I Have BIM.
Their app allows you to use a daily skill like WhatsApp messaging to access your Autodesk Construction Cloud data from any location, just by sending a few messages.
Honorable Mentions
While we got a lot of incredible submissions during the hackathon, unfortunately not everyone could be a winner. But we did want to give a shout out to some honorable mentions, who made Forge solutions that were both creative and showed a lot of potential in other use cases.
Team Zeta
The first honorable mention was Team Zeta - they built a 3D game app that allows you to detect suspicious activity in a virtual environment. The game also showed incredible potential for use in Virtual Reality. As such, we thought it fit to award this team Oculus Quest 2s so they could continue on their development journey and hopefully show us a game we can play in VR next year!
Apogea
The second team that showcased both creativity and further technical potential was Apogea. They created an app that allows you to call up parts of a model using your voice. The judges also saw a lot of potential to further develop this solution in virtual reality, and decided to also award Apogea Oculus Quest 2s!
Codeo
Team Codeo created an interactive configurator using the Forge Viewer. Once you are happy with the kiosk you built, you can export it into a 2D plan that lets you build it yourself.
To see each team's demo in action, make sure you check out the Hackathon Showcase, exclusively a part of Autodesk University 2021.
Congratulations to all the winners, and we can't wait to see what you come up with next year!