GovHack 2021 - Wrap up!

The annual GovHack hackathon took place from 20-22 August this year, with participation across Australia and New Zealand. In Queensland, the competition was mostly virtual due to COVID-19 restrictions however one physical event was hosted in Mackay at Split Spaces.

For GovHack 2021 the Queensland Government sponsored four State GovHack challenges. There were roughly 120 participants in total and 21 unique projects submitted for the Queensland Government challenges.

The GovHack 2021 Queensland State Awards Night was held at The University of Queensland, St Lucia, on Friday 15 October 2021.

Well done to all who took part in this year’s event and congratulations to the successful teams!

For a recap of the challenge questions click here. You can view all the winning entries on the GovHack Hackerspace website or check out the winning projects from the Queensland Government challenges below:

Queensland’s award winners are:

1) Queensland will host the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane. Using Queensland open data, what can we do now to help the state prepare?

Winner: BrisLympics by Team 1484

Helping visitors plan their stay and travel between stadiums and events at the Brisbane 2032 Olympics was the idea behind the wining project for the Queensland Government’s Brisbane Olympics GovHack Challenge.

Team 1484 won the challenge with their project, BrisLympics, a prototype of an app that uses government open data. The app would also enable visitors to keep track of events times, results, and the progress of athletes.

2) What can we learn from open data that will help Queenslanders grow the digital economy during the COVID-19 recovery?

Winner: DigiKey by Big Sunday

Providing Australian’s with an easy and secure way to control and share their personal data and receive timely public health information and notifications was the concept behind the winning entry for the Queensland Government’s digital economy challenge.

The Big Sunday project team, won the challenge for their project, DigiKey, which proposed a web app, API, physical card and dashboard to allow users to stay up to date with public health information instead of having to check multiple website to view COVID-19 warnings and restrictions.

The team wanted to improve digital and information security as well as better health outcomes for all Australians.

3) Queensland’s historical immigration open data is hugely popular. What insights can we gain from this and other related open data?

Winner: But where are we REALLY from? By Team Coco.

Improving the understanding of Australian migration patterns and informing government policies was the idea behind the winning entry for the Queensland Government’s Immigration challenge.

Team CoCo won the challenge for their project, But where are we really from? The project used a range of open-source tools and machine learning algorithms to analyse government migration open data sets.

They also created a website that used data visualisations to depict global migrations patterns to Australia and the impact of migration policies.

The website was designed to help:

governments in understanding patterns in migration and the effect of policies over time
citizens keen to gain an understanding of what has shaped us as a nation
teachers and students as an education tool to research migration to Australia.

Read more about But where are we REALLY from? here.

The runner up was Immigration Nation by team Immigration Nation.

4) What can we do to minimise the number of road crashes on Queensland roads?

Winner: D.R.I.V.E. by No Second Chances

Helping learner drivers improve their driving skills and gain experience using an alternative logbook application, was the concept behind the winning entry of the Road Safety GovHack Challenge.

Team No Second Chances won the challenge with their project D.R.I.V.E., a logbook app which uses real time weather and road condition data to assess the drivers experience of range of conditions.

The app would also recommend additional training resources including videos and virtual reality scenarios to improve the driver’s skills in different conditions such as wet weather, rough terrain, and dense traffic.