What are the advantages of participating in a hackathon or data-related competition like the Aporta Challenge?

Hackathons, contests or challenges related to data are a different way to test your ideas and/or knowledge, while acquiring new skills. Through this type of competition, solutions to real problems are sought, often in multidisciplinary teams that share diverse knowledge and points of view. In addition to being divnamic and entertaining, they are a great opportunity to give visibility to your work or solution, expand contacts or improve your position in the job market.

Now that the registration period for the IV Aporta Challenge, we wanted to ask the winners of the previous editions how their experience was and what it brought them on a personal and professional level.

From ideas to viable businesses

So far, three Aporta Challenges have been completed, focused on the field of public administration, the agri-food, forestry and rural sector and the digital education, respectively.

The projects presented in the different editions have been very diverse: from master's thesis or research team projects to prototypes of already consolidated companies or ideas that have ended up becoming viable businesses. It is the case of Light, the winner of the first edition of the Challenge, in 2017. Light is an app that encourages people to be more sustainable in their daily lives through gamification, using data from Smart cities. After the Challenge, its creators continued working on the project, developing its business model.

Agesta, for its part, a company already consolidated before the Challenge, which took over the second prize of the II edition with a web system aimed at estimating the volume of poplars on a local scale. Agresta continues to develop highly successful projects both nationally and internationally.

Another example is UniversiDATA-lab, the winning solution in the third edition, whose final was held last summer. It is a public portal for advanced and automatic analysis of datasets published by universities. Also the second prize of this edition, the IPM project, continues to run after the Challenge is over.

Promotion of the labor profile in the market

In many other cases, the Challenge served as a platform to gain visibility and broaden the curriculum, which was influential in attracting the attention of various companies and institutions. This situation has left many creators without time to continue developing the solution presented in the Challenge -although they do not rule out taking it up again in the future-, but it has given them great possibilities for the future.

The experience of participating in the Aporta Challenge

But if there is something that the participants in the previous challenges stand out, it is the experience they acquired. The Aporta Challenge was an opportunity to shape an idea and develop a data project from scratch.

Do you want to participate in the new edition? The term is open until February 15

If you want to follow in the footsteps of the winners of the Aporta Challenge, we inform you that the fourth edition is still open. In this case it seek ideas for solutions aimed at driving improvements in the field of health and wellness, that use open data in their development.

To participate, you just have to fill out the form on the Electronic headquarters of Red.es, indicating what your idea is and its value to society, as well as the data sources you would use. You will also have to upload a video explaining the idea.

You have all the information in our web and in the challenge rules.

Go ahead and put your talent to the test!

Content prepared by the datos.gob.es team.