DataMobilize Hackathon
The <#DataMobilize Hackathon : Use your code to improve road safety in Cameroon/>, is an online competition which aims to engage young people from Cameroon in putting their coding skills and ideas in developing innovative applications that address specific road safety issues in Cameroon.
Important: If you haven’t done it yet, make sure to carefully read the full PDF version of Terms of Reference (ToRs) for this hackathon to learn more about the project and the requirements of the context. You can find them here
Table of content
Introduction
The hackathon will focus on building a mobile application for road safety reporting and visualization. The candidate shall choose to work on one of the three (3) topics below:
- Road safety perception reporting : Road users of different types, gender and age report how safe they feel (and why) when moving around on certain roads.
- Road infrastructure defect reporting : Road users report and document infrastructure defects (potholes, broken traffic lights, missing road signs, etc.) that they see when moving around on certain roads.
- Incident reporting : Road users report incidents (crashes, road collapse, equipment collapse, etc..) they are witnessing and inform the corresponding authorities for assistance or intervention.
General overview
The application should include:
- A user login option (with a guest mode),
- Functionalities for the chosen topic (options for road safety reporting, visualization (maps, graph, charts, statistics, etc.) and exploration and other features the developers might think of).
- The application should be able run on Android (and possibly on an iPhone).
- The developers are free to use the tech stack of their choice although cross platform solutions (React Native, Flutter, etc) are encouraged. A react native template is provided here if the candidates decides to use React Native as the project stack.
- The application shall be functional and testable.
- The candidates repository should contain a release tag containing the latest build of the application.
Eligibility
The hackathon is open to anyone currently living in Cameroon who meets the following criteria :
- Is a Cameroonian.
- Is below the age of 35 years by September 2024.
- Is a developer or has proven knowledge in programming and coding.
- Has basic knowledge about road safety and its situation in Cameroon.
- Has an interest in putting his skills to improve road safety in Cameroon. Team participation is allowed and encouraged under the following condition :
- Maximum of 5 people per team.
- At least half of the team should meet the above criteria.
- Teams with diverse members, including different genders, are encouraged. While not mandatory, diversity fosters valuable perspectives and creativity in the development process.
Evaluation criteria
For evaluating hackathon projects, the following criteria will be considered :
- Code Quality to assess how well-written and maintainable the code is, ensuring reliability and scalability.
- Testability to evaluate how easily the app can be tested for bugs and performance issues, facilitating stability.
- Ease to Launch and Execute the App to measure the simplicity of deploying and using the app, making it user-friendly.
- Documentation provided with the App to check the completeness and clarity of code comments, user guides, and setup instructions.
- Extra Mile to recognize additional efforts and innovations that enhance the app beyond basic requirements.
- Hackathon requirements adherence to check if the app meets specific criteria for login, reporting, visualization and exploration, aligning with the event’s description.
Application procedure
The application procedure is as follow
Initial Submission:
- Action: Participants must complete a form expressing their interest, providing team details, and outlining their project idea.
- Information: After submission, participants should join the telegram group of participants which will be the official communication channel with them during the event. To join the telegram group, each participant must open the telegram bot DMParticipationBot and follow the instructions by providing his/her Github handle. If the Github handle is a valid participant handle, he/she will be invited to the group.
Project Submission:
- Action: Following the group admission, participants will be welcomed, assisted during the hackathon and each they can submit their final project at their convenience before the hackathon deadline.
- Deadline : The hackathon is open until November 17th, 2024, at 23:59 Cameroon time.
Participation and planning
To participate, the candidate shall submit an issue here, filling the form and providing the appropriate information. The hackathon follows the calendar:
- October 10th , 2024 : Online opening of application to the hackathon.
- November 17th, 2024 : Online closing of application to the hackathon.
- November 22nd, 2024 : Online communication of the winning projects.
- November 29nd, 2024 : In presence prize presentation to the winners (1st place) in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Note: Only the main (master) branch of each project shall be reviewed. Any commit made to this branch (main branch) after the end of submissions shall disqualify the project
Queries and contact information
The following are important information about receiving support and staying up to date :
- Contact: For any questions or clarifications, participants can reach out to the hackathon organizers at contact@kodytech.net with local.actions.cm@gmail.com in cc.
- Notifications: Participants will receive notifications about their application status and any important updates via the telegram bot DMParticipationBot or by email. Participants should ensure they provide a valid email address and contact details during registration.
- Information: All relevant information, including updates and guidelines, will be shared through the Data Mobilize project official communication channels. For the latest updates, visit and follow DataMobilize on Linkedin , DataMobilize on Facebook, Kody on Linkedin and Kody on Facebook.
- Support: If you encounter any issues or need assistance, please reach out at contact@kodytech.net with local.actions.cm@gmail.com in cc or alternatively for urgent issues call + (237) 676 761 902.