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IBM Call for Code Hackathon helps build resiliency against California wildfires

IBM hosted a one-day hackathon to brainstorm projects for natural disaster preparedness and relief responding to the California wildfires.

July 17, 2019 •

IBM

California suffered an unprecedented number of wildfires in 2018 — more than 8,000 burning an area of almost two million acres. In dollars, the wildfires caused about $3.5 billion in damage, but the greatest toll was in human lives, more than 100 people died last year as a result of the California wildfires.

In recognition of Wildfire Community Preparedness Day on May 4, 2019, IBM and 42 Silicon Valley teamed up to host a one-day hackathon to help developers, engineers, designers and emergency responders work on projects for natural disaster preparedness and relief during wildfires with a focus on community health and well-being.

Omkar Nimbalkar, Vice President, Client & Partner Developer Advocacy, IBM Cognitive Applications told The Next Web:

“We are hoping for solutions that not only inform people with real-time event updates impacting their region, but ones that help save lives ahead of and in the aftermath of disasters. Artificial intelligence, AI-powered chatbots and natural language processing (NLP) could be used to improve real time communications between first responders, victims, relief agencies and more.”

The winning team at the May 4th event was Emergency Info Guide. This team will advance to the overall Call for Code competition and have the chance to win $200K. According to the winning team:

“The name Emergency Info Guide doesn’t necessarily denote what it is about. The general concept is for an IoT weather station. It is a device that senses temperature, wind direction, barometer, moisture and air quality like CO2 particulates. The device is a small package, designed to be carried by firefighters, and is like an oversized tent spike. You can drive it into the ground and unscrew the top where the antenna pops up, and that is part of the weather station.”

For more information on Call for Code and to submit an idea to the worldwide developer competition (deadline July 29, 2019), visit: https://developer.ibm.com/callforcode/

About IBM

In business for more than 100 years, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is a widely held, publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Originally called the Computing Tabulating Recording Company, it was incorporated in the State of New York in 1911 and manufactured products ranging from commercial scale and industrial time recording equipment to tabulators and punched cards. It was renamed International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) in 1924.

IBM is one of the world's largest information technology companies, operating in over 175 countries with over 264,300 full-time employees. The company creates value for clients by providing integrated solutions and products that help them transform their businesses and engage with their customers and employees in new ways. These solutions draw from an industry-leading portfolio of consulting and IT implementation services, cloud, digital, and cognitive offerings, and enterprise systems and software, all bolstered by one of the world's leading research organizations.

IBM Technology is addressing the hybrid cloud and AI opportunity with a platform-centric approach, focused on providing client value through a combination of technology and business expertise. We provide integrated solutions and products that leverage data, information technology, deep expertise in industries and business processes, with trust and security and a broad ecosystem of partners and alliances. Our hybrid cloud platform and AI technology and services capabilities support clients' digital transformations and help them engage with their customers and employees in new ways. These solutions draw from an industry-leading portfolio of capabilities in software, consulting services, and a deep incumbency in mission-critical systems, all bolstered by one of the world's leading research organizations.

IBM Consulting delivers business transformation, technology consulting, and application operations by leveraging hybrid cloud and AI technologies from IBM, along with our ecosystem partners. To support our hybrid cloud strategy, we built up the Red Hat business to over $2.5 billion. We are pursuing a similar approach for our AI strategy with over 16,000 accredited consultants. We have also scaled our focus on the ecosystem to create multi-billion-dollar partnerships with AWS, Microsoft, and SAP. Our consulting capabilities help clients to realize value from their digital transformations, for example, a global provider of business decisioning data and analytics is leveraging watsonx for a procurement solution to improve savings, reduce time, and mitigate risk.

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IBM Call for Code Hackathon helps build resiliency against California wildfires

IBM hosted a one-day hackathon to brainstorm projects for natural disaster preparedness and relief responding to the California wildfires.