Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) — operator of Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (BLR Airport) has revealed the winners of the BIAL Genie Hackathon.
Run in collaboration with Microsoft, the Hackathon saw 11,500 teams of developers and data scientists from across India bid to design innovative solutions using Microsoft Azure services. The challenge was designed, according to BIAL, to unearth new innovations and solutions that will improve the end-to-end passenger experience at BLR Airport.
Team Reboot Rebels emerged the grand winners with its innovative application ‘Fly Ezy’ winning INR 1.5 lakhs (£1,514) as cash reward. The four-member Reboot Revels team suggested potential solutions to support the passenger journey, from commuting to the airport, internal navigation once there, facilitating access to shopping offers as well as alerts for passenger flights.
Other key highlights of Team Reboot Rebels’ work included internal navigation which can be integrated into the airport map and shows dynamic movement on the map with real-time insights for passengers. The application was designed to give passengers an easy, efficient, secure, and memorable travel experience. Another useful feature was a Blockchain wallet which allows passengers to be rewarded with coins which can later be redeemed to get discount coupons at stores in and around the airport.
Team Code Blooded was the runner up with its AI-based solution AIR DASH, which included various usage of Azure services for easy navigation through Azure Maps and a personalised marketplace developed through Azure Machine Learning Studio, including smooth onboarding for ecosystem partners. The team won a cash reward of INR 1 lakh (£1,010).
The BIAL Genie Hackathon ran from October 2021 to February 2022. Out of 107 shortlisted ideas, 29 prototypes were submitted, with a final shortlist of seven. The shortlisted teams were provided with Azure credits, technical resources, and mentoring sessions by Microsoft subject matter experts.
“I would like to thank all participants of the hackathon for the overwhelming response and to congratulate the winning teams. This brought together some of the brightest minds in the tech space and has enabled them to create solutions that would have an impact in enhancing customer experience at BLR Airport, by leveraging the next generation of digital technologies. We look forward to seeing the transformative ideas develop into practical actions that will help us realise the vision of a digitalised and smart airport,” said BIAL chief information officer George Fanthome.
