Emirates - Travel Hackathon

Emirates - Travel Hackathon

Following earlier initiatives by American Airlines and British Airways , Emirates Travel Hackathon is the latest 24-hour coding marathon that brings together developers and designers to build new and innovative travel-centric applications using web and mobile API’s (application programming interfaces).

Emirates, and its sister company Emirates Holidays, co-hosted the event in California’s Silicon Valley on the 21st and 22nd of September. The idea was to open the floor to some of the smartest and most creative students and professionals in Silicon Valley to “help world travelers fully experience their vacation dream.”

A variety of prizes were on offer, from a USD 2000 first prize to a USD 500 ‘popular choice award’, both available from a USD 20,000 prize fund. The event also had its own twitter feed to cover the action, which included a few more fun social elements such as an inter-team Nerf (foam bullet) gun battle.

The Emirates Hackathon event had sold out and hosted 300 ‘hackers’. The awards were dominated by the students of Carnegie Mellon University who scooped six awards at the event.