Our two sophomores, Mr. Kiyoshi IGARASHI and Mr. Yuta SAKAGUCHI (*1), won the grand prize at the First University of Tokyo Hackathon (*2).

The hackathon, "JPHACKS," (*3) organized by the University of Tokyo is one of the Japan's largest hackathon events for university students. In this hackathon, a competition (development of tools) and preliminary presentations were held on December 13 (Sat) and 14 (Sun) under the theme, "products that will become world's standards in the coming three years," and the final presentations were given by selected nine teams on December 20 (Sun), followed by its commendation ceremony.

230 science and engineering majors, many of whom are from the University of Tokyo, applied for the event with the capacity of 100 participants. 130 applicants on 32 teams were selected based on their experience in tool development, and competed over their skills in development of tools within a time limit of 48 hours.The competitors made presentations directed at people from leading IT companies, engineers and investors, on the tools they had just developed there.

As a result of examination, the team "Spiritual DB" of Mr. IGARASHI and SAKAGUCHI won the grand prize. Their prize winning-tool is "spiritual Axsh." This watch-type tool enables users to exchange various information including their business cards when they shake hands ("akushu" in Japanese) with each other. The point that they developed not only programs but also an actual device in such a short time was highly praised by judges.

Receiving the grand prize, Mr. IGARASHI said, "We developed our plan at the hotel where we stayed on the day before the competition. On the competition day, we bought some additional parts at a 100-yen shop and soldered all parts at the competition venue. Other teams' high-level presentations inspired us a lot. Hereafter, we will develop favorable environment for commercialization of this tool."

Mr. SAKAGUCHI smiled and said, "We were very busy before the competition and could hardly find time for preparation. We repeated trial and error until the last minute. But our presentation went very well along with some ad lib. The level of the competition was so high that I could not even imagine ourselves getting the grand prize. We are really honored to win the grand prize."

jphacks01.jpg
Smiling "Spiritual DB" in Non-tan team T-shirts. Mr. IGARASHI showing the tool on his wrist (left) and Mr. SAKAGUCHI holding a testimonial and a trophy (right).

*1　Other commendations of Mr. IGARASHI and Mr. SAKAGUCHI:
*2　The word "hackathon" is a portmanteau of the words "hack" and "marathon." Being interested in the same theme, participants in a hackathon collaborate in development.
*3　JPHACKS

Related Links