Humanitarian Innovation Hackerthon for the Pacific

Greetings from the Knowledge Hub at University of Sydney, where I am helping shortlist entrants in the Humanitarian Innovation Hackerthon. Entries are focused on the challenge of helping with disasters in Pacific countries. The challenge is to come up with something affordable, which helps people, without doing things to them. The Knowledge Hub is similar to ANU's Hive.

Come and Build the Decentralised Web in Canberra at the Solid 2026 Hackathon

Solid Hackerthon Free Tickets

Just been talking to Jess Moore, who is organizing the Solid 2026 Hackathon. This is a free event anyone can sign up for 14 to 16 July 2026 at the the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN) Canberra. This is run by the Australian National University's  Software Innovation Institute.  The Solid protocol (SOcially LInked Data) is a way to have secure data under the control of the owner and has been adopted as a standard by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), based on work by Tim Berners-Lee. As well as protecting personal information, this has application in military and security systems, where sensitive information needs to be provided on a need to know basis. This is particularly difficult when working with allies you don't entirely trust.

Humanitarian Innovation Hackathon 2026

Registrations are open for the 2026 Humanitarian Innovation Hackathon at the University of Sydney, 17 to 19 July. Teams of undergraduate students will work world problems. There are prizes, but as with any hackerthon it is about learning to work together. I have volunteered to mentor. This will be my third time mentoring a hackerthon this year.

Civil Defence Apps

Rhys Kissell, at hackathon start

Greetings from UNSW Canberra, where the Australian Defense Tech Hackathon just started. There is a room full of people ready to build defence related inventions. It was a unique and sobering experience to have a minute silence in memory of those lost in the Ukraine war. It was also useful to be reminded that defence tech is not all about drones dropping bombs, this can include civil defence. This is in conjunction with the European Defense Tech Hub. One interesting aspect is the emphasis on industry implementation and deployment, rather than just invent something. This is also a very hands on experience with UNSW's marker space with electronics equipment and 3d printers. I am presenting "How to Pitch to a General: Presenting to a Military Audience" 11am tomorrow for the hackerthon participants.

Who Hacks Wins: Australian Defense Tech Hackathon

I am delighted to be mentoring teams in the Australian Defense Tech Hackathon, 6 to 8  February 2026, at UNSW Canberra. This is being held in association with the European Defense Tech Hub. The usual hackathon format is used, with teams spending a few days working on an idea & competing for prizes. But the point with a hackerthon is that you are not there to invent something, but to learn.

This will be my fourth time mentoring at defence hackerthon. 

Event canvas from NWIW 2020
by Paul Telling

Two were hosed by the Australian Computer Society for the DoD and one by Navy. 

Also I have volunteered to to run a workshop on how to present tech to senior people. This semester I will be also helping out with ANU's Software Construction course, which uses hackerthons for learning.

Focus areas include the expected topics of electronic warfare & drones, but also includes "Battlefield Economics & Scaling Production". While the headlines are usually grabbed by exotic high tech weapons, if you can't afford to buy them or can't build them, they are no use.

Also I have offered to run a workshop on how to talk to your client when they are a general. This is not that different to talking to senior executives in industry or government, but there are some unusual conventions.

ps: Yes, as one of my eagle eyed colleagues pointed out this is the "Australian Defense Tech Hackathon", spelled with an American style "S" US, not the "C" of Australian English. This is in association with a European organisation, so it is not like it is a US thing. NATO use a "C" for English documents and "S" for French.  When I worked in HQ ADF I had a complaint from a US journalist that we had misspelled "Defense" in a policy document. A short time later we received a groveling apology. ;-)

"Goals

​​1) Solve urgent defense and security challenges ...

​​2) Launch new careers and companies...

​​3) Strengthen Australia through defense innovation... 

Focus Areas ...

1. ​SIGINT & OSINT
2. ​Computer Vision & Edge AI
3. ​Unmanned & Autonomous Systems (UxS)
4. ​Electronic Warfare (EW)
5. ​Modular Sensors
6. ​Drone & Counter-Drone Tech
7. ​Battlefield Economics & Scaling Production
8. ​Hypersonics and Missile Defence ...

Agenda

​
Friday, February 6, 2026

​​12:00 - Doors open, Networking

​13:00 - Welcome and Opening Program

​14:00 - Workshops

​17:00 - Introduction to Mentors & Challenges, Last-Minute Team Formation

​18:00 - Start of Hacking

​Saturday, February 7, 2026

​Hacking continues all day

​Sunday, February 8, 2026

​12:00 - End of Hacking, Lunch Break

​Demo Day (Open to Visitors)

​13:00 - Pitches of the winning teams

​15:00 - Award Ceremony

​15:30 - After-party & Networking"

Live Hackerthon Pitches to Combat AI Cheating

Greetings from the Copeland Lecture Theatre at the Australian National University. The theatre has been repurposed as a pitch arena. Teams of students are making three minute presentations on an app they developed as part of the Software Construction course. There are only a few seconds for changeover between presentations. This form of experiential learning is one way to combat AI cheating. This allows the whole class to present in one hour long lecture slot. As well as being graded, students can win a prize and may be talent spotted by entrepreneurs, such as Ken Kroeger. While the presentations are digital, I noted that Professor Gretton used an pen and paper for notes on the work. 

As well as having to pitch live, each team has to provide an electronic archive of their work. This makes it much harder for a student to contract out the work, either to a human or AI software. One subtley in the way the pitches are made is that Zoom is being used, although we are all in the room together on this occasion, this allows all the presentations to be easily recorded and the option of a blended mode, wth remote students and teachers. 

Hackerthons for Training New Federal Government Consultants?

GovHack AGM Online

Could GovHack style hackerthons be used to quickly get the new federal government internal consultants up to speed?

Greetings from the office of AWS Australia in Canberra, where I am attending the GovHack Annual General Meeting. GovHack is a non-profit organization which organizes an annual hackerthon using government data sources. This happens at sites around Australia (and last year NZ as well). Teams build applications using the data, and the best win prizes.

The meeting is around an impressive boardroom style table, with a large wall-screen showing Zoom participants. A slightly quirk touch is that the room's impressive video conferecne system is not being used. Instead a smartphone is propped up in a takeout coffee cardboard tray. This is in the makedo-do spirit of Govhack. 

Many school, and university students take part, as do new staff at government agencies and corporations. In the past I have helped with university and defence department hackerthons. These are useful for people to learn to work rapidly on a project, and to work with people with diverse skills. 

I was asked about participation by the Australian Computer Society (ACS). I suggested GovHack would appeal to the smaller chapters and branches, for participation in grass roots activites (I am a member of the ACS Professional Standards Board).

The hackerthon format I believe has considerable potential as part of formal assessed school and university courses, as well as professional development, and workplace learning. The hackerthon is similar to the group projects which students in some disciplines, such as computing, undertake over six months to a year, but compressed to three days. This may be of use for training the new federal government internal consultants. 

Event canvas from NWIW 2020
by Paul Telling

The Australian Government has decided to reduce reliance on external consultants, and make more use of public servants, including an internal consulting team. This will require new skills, both for those transitioning from the private sector, and those used to working in one agency. The hackerthon provides a way to learn to work in a diverse team rapidly. Normally hackerthons are though of as open events. However, it is possible to run an internal event with cleared staff, working on sensitive matters. Over the last few years I have assisted with three defence related hackerthons (Navy Warfare Innovation Workshop 2020, Secure Supply Chains ADF/NZDF 2020). 

ps: You will notice that I appear on the Zoom twice: once in the room in Canberra, and secondly as an individual Zoom participant. Someone around the table asked about this, getting confused seeing two of me. In the past I found it much easier to treat a hybrid meeting as online, plus a room, than the other way around. This works fine provided I don;t have audio on (which causes feedback problems). One advnatge is to be able to post into, and easily read, the chat. 

Hackerthon Format Has Potential for Education

This weekend teams across Australian and New Zealand have been participating in Govhack 2022, looking at how free open access data provided by government, might be used. Here are some of the videos submitted today. There will be judging and award of prizes from the sponsors. However, I suggest this form of rapid fire development process could be used as part of an educational program. ANU Techlauncher, and similar group programs, take six months or a year, whereas a hackerthon can take 72 hours. This provides a useful simulation of the type of high pressure graduates are likely to find themselves in. 

Australian Government Acknowledges ANU TechLauncher Developing Professionals

 The Australian Public Service Commission has acknowledged the role of the Australian National University's TechLauncher program in "developing the next generation of tech professionals". This is a form of Work Integrated Learning where a team of students undertake a real project for a real client. But is not as easy as it sounds (I help out teaching the students soft skills).

The APSC also have a case study of GovHack on the same page. Hackerthons successfully transitioned to the online environment last year. I helped with some for ANU, ACS, CSIRO, and DoD. There is scope for hackerthons, in both technical and non-technical disciplines, to be used more. Hackerthons could be used as part of the curriculum to give students a short sharp experience of teamwork for course credit, as well as for their usual role of  learning as well as outreach (as with the ANU Singapore Health Hack 2019)?

Reference

Delivering for Tomorrow: APS Workforce Strategy 2025, Australian Public Service Commission, March 2021. URL https://www.apsc.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-03/APS_Workforce_strategy.pdf

Hackerthons for Learning

These are the notes for the third of four webinars on "Engaging students in the online environment", Wednesday, 3 February at 11 am AEDT Sydney time (Tuesday, 2nd, 5 pm MST in Edmonton). Please register now for the webinar and send your suggestions.

Hackerthons for Learning

Hackathons came from the computer industry, where teams competed over a few days to collaborate intensively on a project. These have now expanded into other fields. Can we use this format to keep students engaged, solving real world problems? I will talk about his experience with hackerthons involving students and military personnel. Be ready to contribute your ideas.

Next up: I-ACE Hackathon

The India Australia Circular Economy Hackathon (I-ACE), runs online from 9 to 10 February. It is hosted by the Australian Government's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Government of India’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM). Teams of students and startups compete for $52,000 in prizes. I have volunteered to mentors teams, due to my interest in computers to improve supply chains and reducing e-waste.

Navy Warfare Innovation Workshop 2020

Event canvas from NWIW 2020
by Paul Telling

My last hackerthon was the Navy Warfare Innovation Workshop 2020 (NWIW), where I am facilitated one of the teams. Participants were from the military, public servants and defence contractors. They had to form teams, select a challenge to work on and then work on a solution. Each day there were presentations from experts, help with techniques and tools. A panel of experts then judged the final presentations. A visual summary of the projects was produced by Paul Telling. My team came up with TIDE: Treat Identification Detection and Effects for dealing with swarms of RAS (Robotic Autonomous Systems).

The real value of such competitions is not to produce a product (or win a prize), but to have the participants learn new skills and meet people they can later work with on projects. 

Tools for Hackerthons

Remo Conference

Hackerthons traditionally took over a building at a university or school, with lecture halls used for presentations and class rooms for teams to work in. In 2020 this all moved online due to COVID-19. Zoom was the popular video conferencing choice for presentations and Slack for teams to work together. The Virtual Hackathon on Fighting Pandemics by the Australian National University Humanitarian Innovation Society (ANU HISoc), with the Clinton Global Initiative University and IBM, made the unusual choice of using Remo Conference, a video conferencing tools which looks like a conference room floor plan. While the tool looks promising, more work is needed.

Logistics of Hackerthons

The Australian Computer Society ran two Hackerthons, in 2020, using Slack, Zoom, and the usual collaboration tools. What makes these effective is that they recruit a team of volunteers to be actively involved with participants. These events had many hundreds of participants and the second around 80 mentors. These are large scale undertakings requiring careful planning. The Shockproof hackerthon on Secure Supply Chains for the Australian and NZ Defence Forces was unusual as it was aimed at defence force personnel, but open to anyone. 

Hackerthons for Education

ANU TechLauncher,

Team Formation Exercise, 2018

Hackerthons are run by educational and research organisations, professional bodies and companies for promotional purposes.  This is a good way to get positive publicity. However, I suggest the same format could also be used for education. The hackerthon essentially takes the group project format used in schools and universities (such as ANU TechLauncher), and compresses it from weeks, to a few days. The competitive element makes it more exciting for students. The short duration helps get by-in from expert helpers.

Navy Warfare Innovation Workshop 2020

Event canvas from NWIW 2020
by Paul Telling

Greetings from the Navy Warfare Innovation Workshop 2020 (NWIW), where I am facilitating one of the teams. This is the third and final day of the workshop, with Navy personnel joining with people from the defence community and  academia working on an idea. This is much like other hackerthons I have mentored this year, with the added bonus that we can again meet face to face (some teams are online for logistical reasons). 

The teams respond to a scenario, similar in format to one I prepared for ANU students. A visual summary of the projects was produced by Paul Telling. My team came up with TIDE: Threat Identification Detection and Effects for dealing with swarms of RAS (Robotic Autonomous Systems).

Participants use the same techniques as a business start-up competition, refining and presenting an idea, but one to defend the country. A panel of senior defence experts then select which merit further development.

However, the real value of such competitions is not to produce a product, but have the participants learn new skills and meet people they can later work with on projects. 

Hacking the Virtual Hackerthon

Greeting from the Virtual Hackathon on Fighting Pandemics. This is organized by the Australian National University Humanitarian Innovation Society (ANU HISoc), with the Clinton Global Initiative University and IBM. We have had an introduction from the organizers at HISoc, and a design thinking workshop from IBM. I will be talking about better logistics at 2:15pm. The opening sessions used Remo Conference, and I am impressed that the organizers have been able to get it to work so well, but Remo needs improvements to be usable for education.

Remo Conference

Remo Conference

Remo Conference (Version: 2.13.5) takes the "conference" part of video conferencing more literally than other products, with an interface which looks like a conference room floor plan. Participants can be pre-allocated to tables, with a tiny picture of them, labeled with their initials, around the table as if seated. Spare space at the table is indicated by empty chairs. Those at a table can see and hear each other with the video windows appearing at the top of the screen. Participants can move tables by double clicking on another. Some tables may be reserved for MCs and a help desk. The MC can call all participants to a presentation, at which point the table conversations shut down and a large window opens for the presenter. When in presentation mode Remo Conference looks much like any other webinar product, with a presentation window, chat, Q&A and Raise-Hand functions.

The room metaphor is a good idea, but Remo's implementation takes it a bit too literally. One problem is that when the participants arrive there is no sound and no welcome. I spent a lot of time trying to work out why my audio was not working, but it was just that no one was talking: we were all waiting for something to happen. It would be useful if there was some sort of avatar to show us to our seats and some sort of background hum of the crowd. 

Also the fixed room layout does not make best use of screen space. When at a table, having all other tables displayed is a waste of space. It would be better if the interface zoomed in. There is a text chat window, but I could not find a way to resize it, so it obscured things I wanted to see. However, the largest problem is the video does not work well on a slower link.

This is my fourth attempt to use Remo. The first two times I did not manage to see or hear anything. The third time it worked, sort of. This forth time it is usable, but only just. The problem is that like many video conferencing tools, Remo have assumed the user has high speed broadband. As a result on my low speed connection Remo barely works, at the best of times. This is unfortunate, as Zoom have shown this does not need to be the case: Zoom adjusts well for a lower speed link. In Zoom, if I make the window smaller the resolution of video reduces and with that the data transmitted. This doesn't happen with Remo. Even if I minimize the window, so no video is visible, Remo still uses more than 1 Mbps, whereas Zoom uses much less.

The video data use in Remo seems to vary depending on the resolution the video participant is transmitting. During this week's CBRIN First Wednesday, everything was working okay with Remo, until the MC appeared. At that point I saw a blurry closeup of their face frozen on screen. Then a pre-recored YouTube video started and worked fine, but before then end this was interrupted by the MC again as a huge still image. What appears to have been happening was that the MC was in HD video which my system could not cope with. The YouTube was low resolution and worked fine, but was interrupted by the HD again before it could finish playing.

All this discussion of low resolution may sound irrelevant to those with high speed broadband: why not just spend a few dollars and get decent broadband? I could do that as I am relatively well of, and live in a first-world city which pioneered fiber to the node decades ago. But many people can't afford, or can't get, high speed broadband. 

For-profit companies can simply ignore customers without high speed broadband, reasoning these people don't have enough money to be worth worrying about. As an educator, it would be unethical, and perhaps unlawful, to discriminate against students in this way. So when COVID-19 hit I decided to forgo the high speed broadband I had access to and instead make do with a high latency low speed 4G mobile broadband connection My connection works at around 1.5 Mbps, which is is part of the ANU Recommended student system requirements.

If a service doesn't work on low speed broadband, then some of my students, who are now scattered around the world, may not be able to use it. Although Remo recommends a minimum of 8 Mbps, it just about works at 1.5 Mbps. I suggest the developers implement video bandwidth adjustments, like those in Zoom, to make it usable for those who can't afford, or can't get, high speed broadband.

ZeroCO2 Hackathon 2020

Canberra's ZeroCO2 Hackathon 2020 runs online over two-weeks, starting 18th August and is open for registrations. Teams will work on business ideas to reduce domestic and commercial carbon emissions, with $10,000 in prizes. I mentored teams in the 2019 competition and have volunteered again. 

 Due to COVID-19 this years event is entirely online, whereas last year we were all at the Canberra Institute of Technology's excellent renewable energy training facility. However, this will be my fourth time helping with an online hackerthon this year, and the activity has easily translated to the online format.

Rethinking Research and Industry Conferences Online

There are companies offering to provide a platform to reproduce face to face academic and trade conferences on line. But perhaps rethink what is useful and what participants value about a conference, rather than reproduce a physical one.

Martin Dougiamas, creator of Moodle,
and Tom Worthingtont,
EduTech Asia 2018

I have been impressed with EduTech Asia's zoom based live webinars. These are very simple: an MC a panel of two or three speakers and plenty of time for questions. However, they clearly see this as just a stopgap to keep potential delegates and exhibitors connected until they can have a traditional event. Their first event is planned for November in Singapore, which I would be delighted to speak at it again, but not if I have to spend two weeks in quarantine in Australia, on my return.

Also the Australian Computer Society has run two Hackerthons, using Slack, Zoom, and the usual collaboration tools. What makes these effective is that they recruit a team of volunteers to be actively involved with participants. I was a mentor at the first and a lead mentor at the second. What also helps is having sponsors.

A conference is not just one thing. There is the chance for a trip somewhere. TALE 2019 had the attraction for me of visiting Yogyakarta.

Successful Virtual Hackathons

Steve Nouri ran two recent online hackerthons for the Australian Computer Society. He has written some very useful "Lessons Learned From Executing Successful Virtual Hackathons" (Forbes, Jun 11, 2020). These hackerthons ran over a few days. I was one of the mentors fort the first and a lead mentor for the second (mentoring the mentors).  The idea is teams are formed and work on a project addressing a specific challenge. There are set deliverables with deadlines, judging, and prizes. 

In the past I have helped out with hackerthons at a physical location, ome were national, or global, at multiple locations. An online hackerthon creates new challenges, but also new opportunities. Mostly the online tools mentioned by Steve worked very well, but it is the socialization using them which is important.

A hackerthon is similar in format to a student group projects used in many STEM university courses, except compressed in time: a hackerthon is two or three days, whereas a group project may be ten weeks. There is the potential to use the hackerthon format in industry and in education to give staff and students experience of creative group working quickly.

ANZDF Logistics Hack Awards

Greetings from the ANZDF Logistics joint hackathon awards. The judges thanked the 500 participants, 70 mentors (I was one of those), the Australian Computer Society who hosted the event, and the platform Slack.The awards were held using Zoom, which had also been used for the opening, and for several organizer meetings in between. This worked flawlessly for the awards, however, without an audience, or the winning teams, or the videos of what they did (for security reasons) the awards ceremony was a bit of an anti-climax. I suggest for this sort of event a little pomp is in order, perhaps music, envelopes opened, some trophies, and a few speeches thanking families. But at least it was short, at only 15 minutes. ;-)

Making a Better Hackerthon

At the moment I am in the post event meeting of Lead Mentors for the  joint hackathon to Secure Supply Chains for the Australian and NZ Defence Forces. The Slack communications tool used used for the event and worked well, but it has taken me about four such events to get used to it.  Here some suggestions I offered, which may be applicable to other hackerthons:

• 

  Innovation ACT Participants 2020

  
  The Innovation ACT competition have steps for the teams, with badges, to make sure they have done the basics. Some can be very simple things, like a tick for initially contacting your mentor: https://innovationact.org/iact19/participant-info/

Canberra start-up "OK RDY" have an app for connecting people with mentors. I mentored the project team when they won the Innovation ACT competition. There are a few products like this. Perhaps one could be used for the hackerthons. https://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/search/label/OK%20RDY

It might be useful to also have a hurdle where mentors have to sign up to Slack in advance. The idea would be to filter out the people who are very clever, and important, but might not get around to actually participating. 

Coaches not lead mentors: Rather than having someone administratively in charge of a group of mentors, have people to provide advice. I took on the Coach role for GovHack 2017. https://blog.tomw.net.au/2017/07/toms-ten-tips-for-govhack.html

For team building, something like the ANU TechLauncher process could be used. Each person with a project idea gives a very brief pitch. Those interested then sign up. The organisers then check there are not too few or too many, and do some rearrangement. https://cs.anu.edu.au/TechLauncher/dates/team_formation/

ANZDF Logistics Hack: A Blizzard of Messages.

A joint hackathon to Secure Supply Chains for the Australian and NZ Defence Forces starts at 7pm (Canberra Time). I have volunteered to help, as a Lead Mentor, mentoring some of the mentors, who in turn provide advice to the participants). The Slack communications tool is being used for the event. This can be a little overwhelming, with a blizzard of messages. It can be easy to miss some important, in among lots of "hello I am...". This is something academics teaching online at university could useful experience, as it is similar to the bewildering flood of messages a student receives. The academic running a course may send out a message and wonder why students did not receive it. What they do not see are the other several hundred messages the student will receive from the university the same day.

Some of the pre-reading for the hack, may be of interest:

1. COVID-19 crisis, By Katherine Ziesing, Australian Defence Magazine, 5 April 2020
2. Covid-19 shows Australia needs a national sovereignty strategy, by David Fawcett, Australian Strategic Policy Institute,12 May 2020
3. Three Examples of a Supply Shock, Simplicable,6 February 2020
4. One hundred days of the coronavirus crisis, By Inga Ting and Alex Palmer, 4 May 2020

Hackathon Friday to Secure Supply Chains for the Australian and NZ Defence Forces

Senator Reynolds,
Australian Minister for Defence

Senator Linda Reynolds, the Australian Minister for Defence, announced today the Australian and New Zealand Defence Forces will host a joint hackathon to strengthen supply chains. This is to be run by the Australian Computer Society (ACS), starting this Friday. Australians and New Zealanders have been asked to contribute ideas to secure the logistics of our military, in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as recent bushfires, earthquakes and floods.

Participation can be as team members, mentors and partners. The event will be held over three days, with  the same hackerthon format as used for the Flatten the Curve hack in April. On day one teams are formed, day two they design and build, and on day three they refine and present their proposals, which are judged for prizes.

ps: I have volunteered to help, with my experience working at Australian Defence Force Headquarters in the 1990s, while President of the ACS, developing national policy online as part of what the media called the Internet "Cabal".