France: 'Hackathon' French and Japanese Students Compete at Programming Marathon

Horiba Scientific sponsored a ‘Hackathon’ that brought together students from the University of Tokyo and the École Polytechnique to do computer programming and prototyping.

Paris/France — The event took place from February 24 to 27, 2017, on the campus of the École Polytechnique. About twenty students competed in teams of 5 in this computer programming marathon.

For two days, students worked at the Drahi X-Novation Center, a center entirely dedicated to innovation and entrepreneurship, on the technological project proposed by the sponsor.

The challenge was to create, "A device that you would like to have for future lab or fablab activities".

Hosted at the heart of the École Polytechnique entrepreneurial ecosystem, the 4 teams were provided with prototyping and co-working spaces of the accelerator and incubator, to develop and create their prototypes. On Monday, February 27^th, the four teams presented their prototypes to a jury chaired by Franck Pacard, Vice-President of Academic Affairs and Research at the École Polytechnique, Matthieu Somekh, Head of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation at École Polytechnique, and the Horiba sponsor, represented by Ramdane Benferhat, Strategic Director and Olivier Acher, Director of Innovation at Horiba France.

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"This bi-continental Japan/France hackathon echoes the multiculturalism of the international Horiba group, and we were delighted to guide these high-level students on a theme that projects us into the future,» commented Olivier Acher, Director of Innovation at Horiba France.

The team projects were presented by students and included a connected necklace to send and receive messages in a clean room, and a stress detector that offers games to relax before starting analysis. Another idea that evolved during the event was a mobile dance floor to do sports at a workplace. The fourth team proposed a mini robot to carry out daily tasks or warn of impending danger.

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