The Nightwatch team existed before GovHack. It was a group of five that went through uni together. Only Andrew was available for the GovHack weekend but it was a strong core.
A data visualisation solution for small business to compare themselves against other businesses
The challenge
How can we help small business owners to easily compare how their business is tracking across a range of performance indicators compared to other similar businesses?
The team chose this after looking at the available data. They found that they could find things like locations that might be good to open a new business because the area is not already saturated. Profit data was available to indicate good places for small businesses.
The solution
“We started building an actual API. Paul put about eight hours into it, before accepting that it just wasn’t going to get done.”
Team mate Milan, an Excel genius, created amazing spatial maps. Andrew created all the imagery. “There’s no actual POC (proof of concept), it’s all mock”. User interfaces, that actually work, were built in Figma.
The team
The Nightwatch team existed before GovHack. It was a group of five that went through uni together. Only Andrew was available for the GovHack weekend but it was a strong core. One of the uni team works for ABS and so was not eligible for GovHack. Milan is a product manager at Paul’s work.
The weekend
The team came up with the idea before the weekend started. On Friday they got the datasets and challenges and started reviewing them as suitable.
“We had about an hour of chat and thought – this looks cool – let’s do this!”
Saturday started at about 9am but Milan had a childcare problem and wasn’t available until about 4pm. Andrew and Paul tried to make a proof of concept in React. “Totally wasted too much time on that”. At that point they switched to Figma to make a mockup.
On Sunday afternoon the slideshow video was started in a tiny corner of the hackerspace.
Advice to new competitors
“I wouldn’t necessarily try to make an application that works – I would purely use Figma or Miro or Invision or one of those prototyping apps”.
Figma lets you build a prototype and actually run it on your phone.
“Choose a data set that you have an interest in, because if you’re interested in it, that’s where you’re going to find gold”.
“It was a fun weekend. I really enjoyed talking to the other teams, the sponsors and mentors”.
GovHack gets real
Paul said that just this morning he was working on a suite of apps called “Buttler Apps” and Business Butler is one of those. Eventually he and Andrew will release a commercial version.
Story by Peter Marks
Thank you Paul Atkins for participating in our Success Stories feature!
Mangesh’s Team was a team of four. Two were office mates and the other was a friend so they knew each other from the “get go”.
The last GovHack event was very smooth for Mangesh’s award winning team “Jarvis” but it wasn’t always like that in past years.
The last GovHack event was very smooth for Mangesh’s award winning team “Jarvis” but it wasn’t always like that in past years.
This GovHack was his third year and the experience paid off.
The team
Mangesh’s Team was a team of four. Two were office mates and the other was a friend so they knew each other from the “get go”.
The team chose a state level challenge from the ACT that asked them to use public transport data to address pain points. In their analysis they found that in peak hours, busses are super loaded, but off peak they are not being used at all.
The solution
The solution they came up with was to create a dynamic pricing model that calculates a price based on distance, occupancy, and time of day. By using price signals, the system might encourage a passenger to defer their trip to get them out of the busy time.
The dynamic pricing information would feed into a passenger’s mobile app in real time so they could, for example, skip a bus and catch a cheaper fair just five minutes later.
The team were all engineers and the solution was built using React and Spring boot (a micro services layer) running on Amazon’s cloud.
The Competition Weekend
Friday was “overall ideation”, the team all agreed with the project and a system architecture was sketched out on the white board.
Saturday’s focus was on getting the proof of concept UI design out.
Sunday was fine tuning of the design, mockups, proof of concept and preparing for the recording of the video.
Advice for first timers
Tips for new GovHackers?
The first year Mangesh participated in GovHack he didn’t join the team until the Saturday night and, looking back, he was super confused about how it should work.
His friend rang and said “hey, there’s something cool, why don’t you come over?”.
That year the team couldn’t even finish the problem statement by the end of Sunday. “It was a bit of an experience”.
Mangesh’s advice is “Grouping on Friday and zeroing on the challenge is super critical to achieve good outcome on Saturday and Sunday. It’s also very important to have clear roles defined to work out the solution in 2 days. Building the mock-ups / Designs and Scripts for video presentations along the way just helps to not spend a lot of time on presenting the idea in 2:30 mins”.
The experience of doing a hackathon helps people in their work as they get to quickly look at a problem and prototype a possible solution in a short timeframe.
Story by Peter Marks
Thank you Mangesh Gopale for participating in our Success Stories feature!
Lynk is an app that connects the youth to their local communities via their school, and helps them learn crucial life skills that they don’t teach you at school!
The problem to fix
After kids finish high school, some of them don’t know what to do, but they have major decisions to make that will affect their future. There are a lot of essential life skills that they might need and weren’t given enough opportunity to master them before starting adulthood. These skills include cooking, taxes, and resume making.
While at school, you’re learning but then, suddenly, you must decide on your future. We are not taught to make big decisions at school.
What the team built
Lynk is an app that connects the youth to their local communities via their school, and helps them learn crucial life skills that they don’t teach you at school! The app gathers events and shares them with users near to that location. The app can also help with other skills for the newly independent person – even cooking!
With this product, we are expecting people to be able to get more opportunities to gain skills that are useful for them in the future. The app was built with Flutter and is multi-platform including Android, iOS and even Linux.
Team roles
The team formed on a networking event before the competition although two of them knew each other already.
Dominic worked on gathering data. Jerry and Zachary did the app programming. Franklin was fresh from high school and learned a lot from the team.
Competition weekend
Friday night was spent looking at the challenges to find the ones of most interest to the team. The time was spent problem solving and planning but also moved into design and a little coding. By the end of Friday the team knew what they would do over the weekend.
Saturday was not high pressure, they had an easy-going approach. The team finished most of the coding part and did most of the design, including the descriptions, UI design, app logo and app design. The day went well and finished at about 8pm.
On Sunday the app was mostly finished and the team started the video editing. Everything was finished about two hours before the deadline just in case something went wrong.
GovHack benefits
Franklin met a lot of talented people in multiple areas. “It makes me motivated and interested in new stuff.”
Rita Arrigo’s team “AuZero” were prize winners in the 2022 GovHack in Victoria.
Rita Arrigo’s team “AuZero” were prize winners in the 2022 GovHack in Victoria. They wanted to generate clean energy by using public spaces to host solar panels, kinetic paving, wind turbines and more.
The problem
Wanted to leverage public spaces to generate clean energy solutions like solar panels, kinetic bikes, kinetic paving blocks, wind turbines. All these sources will generate clean energy which can be used to charge EVs, light up public spaces and power public utilities.
Also by hydrophonic framing, we can sequestrate Co2 emissions.
Over a period over 25 years we can save 6.1million ton CO2 using these practices.
The solution
The team used AI to generate understanding of all the different public spaces that exist in Australia to put together a portfolio of energy generating biophylic products that would reduce the carbon footprint in those areas.
(Biophylic design is an approach to design that uses the natural environment in building).
An example used by the team was a bus stop that is covered in plants. The bus stop would do soil sequestation while keeping users cool, rather than being a tin shed as we often see today.
Data was pulled in from the various sources linked by GovHack and imported in to a DataBricks cloud data warehouse resulting in a prediction model to estimate the business case of different options.
The team
The team met at GovHack on the Friday night. “It was really exciting as we just connected and got on really well”. Rita was there with her husband who is a web developer who wanted to find out more about databases. Rita wanted to make connections with people from Government. They sat next to others who joined the team. They talked about what they were interested in and the combination was good.
Rita brought sales skills, Aman was good with data manipulation. Aman’s wife was brought in to help with the video but it turned out she was a mobile developer and was able to build an app.
“It became a family affair”.
“The venue was beautiful, we were very comfortable, it made it feel like fun rather than work”.
Timing
Friday night was finding the team and listening to presentations on the data and challenges.
Saturday started early, at about 10am, it was a rainy day – really boring – a perfect day for hacking!
It was a lovely atmosphere, people had their kids there. Saturday was devoted to data transformation.
On Sunday the app was created and the video was produced.
The approach to the video was to do screen recordings. Rita is very good at telling stories.
Lessons from GovHack
Networking at a hackathon is a great opportunity combined with “getting your hands dirty” by being able to think about a project in a way that’s real. Rita had not been able to do her own machine learning project leading to predictions so found it great to learn to talk to a data scientist about a problem.
Advice for first timers
“Bring your A game, your open mind, a computer that’s not locked down, and get ready to meet new people and think about things in a different way”.
National AI Centre at CSIRO
Rita now works at the National AI centre which is hosted at CSIRO. It is there to help “uplift” AI capability in Australia by educating the community, building a directory of AI companies, and promoting responsible AI practice.
AI is much more transformative than digital transformation and it does need executives to be involved. “We could be in a Napster moment, with ChatGPT”.
GovHack teaches us how to tell a story about what a technology does. “GovHack is a fantastic opportunity, that you don’t get at work, to think outside the box, work with new people, and solve challenges that you’re passionate about”.
Story by Peter Marks
Thank you Rita Arrigo for participating in our Success Stories feature!
The ‘Alohomora Algorithm’ team members at the infosys location in 2022
The Alohomora Algorithm team has been entering GovHack since 2018, and their team name is based on a Harry Potter spell that unlocks doors, in this case unlocking potential.
The challenge
The problem to fix came from VicGov which was to use data better but in particular the issue of incomplete or incorrect addresses. An example might be that a single address on a corner has two entries. Sometimes a street name is given but it’s in a different suburb. Accidents at remote locations are hard for emergency services to pinpoint. The road network is dynamic, over time with new buildings going up but also in real time where roadworks or accidents might change traffic flow.
The approach
The team broke the solution into three parts: compare, predict and synergise. Compare would look at multiple candidate addresses to find the most likely match, landmarks are then used to narrow down the most likely address, “predict” uses a prediction model to decide on the most likely real address.
What was built
Rather than building a working model, the team came up with multiple use-cases with solution approaches.
The team used Canva which is a collaboration and design tool. It can create wireframes, customer journeys, info-graphics, videos and presentations and as Anikesh has a full license for his work they were able to use that.
Team skills
Anikesh did mostly UX design, presentation and brainstorming.
Swetalina and Saket are developers so they proposed the logic of the solutions and how they might be implemented.
Rup is a University student doing his bachelors degree so GovHack was his first exposure to real time problem solving.
Data
The team created their own database to bring together unique address IDs. In particular the latitude and longitude were used as well as the Google “Plus Code” which is a short location identifier that can be used for locations without an address. They look like “JJXX+HR8, Seattle”.
The hackathon weekend
Friday night was where the team came together and looked at the just released problem statements. In the case of team Alohomora Algorithm they were all housemates but others might find their teams on the night. A challenge relating to linking up data relating to addresses was chosen and then they looked for another challenge that could be solved with the same solution. The team closed for the night by 10pm.
Saturday began by picking the main problem to solve. By midday the team had to register the problem they’re working on. At the end of the day, the team was able to register for additional challenges. By the end of Saturday the team had the “why” and a high level “how”. The team took advantage of mentors who were available to help. They gave guidance about the approach and suggested other things the team hadn’t thought of.
On Sunday morning the team put everything together in diagrams and solution flows. Work on the video was started on Sunday morning but Anikesh is aware from experience that the video can be the hardest part of the work. Many teams start on the video on Saturday. It’s a good idea to split the team to have some working on the solution and others just working on the video.
“There was a lot of time pressure”.
Advice to first timers
“Think about the problem as much as you can” on Friday night.
Choose which problem you want to solve and why.
Mingle with people if you don’t have a team, but do network even if you do have a team.
“If you want to win GovHack – if you know the why, then 50% of the job is done”.
Lessons from participating in GovHack
Learning how to come up with a problem statement under time pressure.
Choosing an approach to solving a problem.
Anikesh finds that in his actual job finding the “why” is critical and GovHack is a great training ground.
“GovHack is all about fun” Some people come to it looking for a job and while that may happen don’t get hung up on that too much.
“Network as much as you can – it’s not about your team, it’s about everyone”. “It’s a small world, you’re going to cross paths with these people in the future”.
Story by Peter Marks
Thank you Anikesh Sasmal for participating in our Success Stories feature!
Atena Pegler’s Journey: From GovHack Participant in 2016 & 2017 to Volunteer in 2023
Part 1: My Journey Begins
As someone who had been deeply entrenched in the Australian startup community for many years, I had witnessed a plethora of stories unfold. I was a digital advisor, providing mentorship on digital marketing to startups in Fishburners, a thriving entrepreneurial hub. Through my lens, I saw dreams materialise into reality, brilliant ideas fizzle out, and the perpetual oscillation between success and failure.
Through my experiences, one statistic remained consistent: an estimated 90% of startups fail. But why? Some might argue that it’s the inherent risk of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. I, however, saw it differently. I saw a gap in market knowledge, a lack of understanding of target demographics, and often a disconnect between what startups were offering and what their audiences actually needed.
Part 2: My First Encounter with GovHack
During my time at university, while pursuing my Master’s in IT at UTS, I often found myself grappling with the uncertainty of which field within IT to specialise in. The decision seemed daunting, with considerations about future salary prospects, demand in the market, and personal interest playing on my mind.
Then GovHack happened. In 2016, I decided to participate in the GovHack Hackathon, a 48-hour marathon designed to address real-life challenges using open government data. As a participant, my goal wasn’t to code, but rather, to provide an innovative solution to a pertinent challenge using my industry knowledge and insights.
I was part of a team that developed “Edugate,” an intelligent software solution aimed at identifying the vector of skill-gaps in the market, vis-à-vis the emerging student workforce. The idea was to help students make informed decisions about their courses, TAFE classes in their final years of high school, and degree applications, thereby increasing their chances of employability.
We identified this as a critical problem that data could help solve. The rate of unemployment among students completing secondary and tertiary education could be improved through predictive analytics and data matching. By smartly aligning qualifications with the ever-evolving employment opportunities, we could help bridge the gap and minimise chances of unemployment.
Much to our delight, Edugate won a state award for this project! The journey from ideation to creating a viable solution was both challenging and exhilarating, laying the groundwork for many more successes to follow.
Fast forward to 2017, when I stumbled upon a GovHack challenge that resonated deeply with me. The challenge was centred around the small business and startup industry. The moment I saw it, I knew this was the project I wanted to dedicate myself to. But I needed the right team.
During the opening ceremony, I managed to connect with some talented data analysts who shared my vision. Together, we created “Search(t+1)” – an innovative data application designed to enable businesses to make accurate predictions about their target markets and gauge their chances of success.
Part 4: About Search(t+1)
So, what does Search(t+1) do? It leverages comprehensive ABS data on suburb demographics and historical data of New Enterprise Incentive Scheme businesses to predict the best Australian startups type and their potential success.
Our user-friendly dashboard displays market growth predictions, recent demographic insights, and a “Startup Success” feature which forecasts the chances of a particular business plan succeeding. These accurate predictions help startups and investors alike to reduce risk.
Much to our delight, Search(t+1) ended up winning a national award for this project! The red carpet award ceremony in Brisbane was a surreal experience and the moment when I held the award in my hands is etched in my memory.
But the GovHack experience did much more than just give me a trophy; it gave me the confidence and courage to execute an idea from start to finish. A year later, I launched my own consulting business Digital Help Desk which I recently branded to Atena Pegler Coaching, coaching startups to execute their ideas and leverage marketing for success.
Part 6: The Takeaway
GovHack wasn’t just a competition. It was a learning experience, an opportunity to make an impact, and most importantly, a catalyst for personal growth. And the most beautiful part? You don’t need to be a technical whiz to participate. All you need is an idea about a particular industry and the will to see it through.
So, if you’re hesitating about participating in GovHack or any hackathon for that matter, take it from someone who’s been there and come out the other side – it can change your life in ways you can’t even begin to imagine. As I always say, the first step to success is showing up. See you at the next GovHack!
Part 7: Giving Back to the Community
In a beautiful twist of fate, my journey with GovHack didn’t stop after winning the national award. In fact, it took a new turn. Today, I find myself not just as a former participant but also as a volunteer for GovHack, serving as the NSW Regional Lead and Deputy Operation Lead.
Despite my bustling schedule, I dedicate a significant amount of time each week to ensure the smooth execution of GovHack. Why, you ask? Because I believe that by facilitating this platform, I can impact many more lives, helping them discover opportunities just like I did.
In this role, I get to channel my energy towards enabling countless individuals to leverage this unique platform, bringing their innovative ideas to life. I see my younger self in many of these participants and it gives me immense joy to guide them through their journey.
My experience has taught me that the more we give to the community, the more we receive in return. It’s not about the tangible rewards, but the innumerable life lessons, the shared knowledge, and the beautiful connections we form along the way.
My journey has come full circle – from a participant to a successful business owner, from receiving guidance to providing it. It’s a testament to GovHack’s impact – creating leaders and givers out of dreamers and doers. Here’s to many more years of giving, learning, and succeeding together.
– Interview with Maz Heidari regarding his experience participating in GovHack 2019.
Here is the Link to the Maz Project: https://2019.hackerspace.govhack.org/projects/small_business_solutions
What initially motivated you to participate in GovHack and how did you first hear about it?
Pizza! I was on the UTS campus one day I think it was in 2017, a saw a bunch of pizza boxes, as a student, wherever there is pizza, you are automatically drawn to it, at least that was the case for me. When I asked about what GovHack is, one of the GovHack team members told me that it’s a 3-day hackathon and you can win prizes by attempting challenges that are addressed using data. I thought to myself, there is probably more free food, I get to mingle with other individuals there and experience a hackathon and maybe win some money as well.
Could you share a little bit about your experience during GovHack? What were some of the highlights and challenges you encountered?
Well, I consider myself a wannabe entrepreneur and I am always trying to find solutions for problems I see in the world around me. But, sometimes, people like me, come up with a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist and that could be very demoralizing. So naturally, I started looking for problems that already exist that people and organisations are looking to solve. I then started reading the news and talking to business people to identify problems so I could attempt to fix them. I found a handful of issues I thought could be fixed. One of those was for a large state organisation. I put a lot of thought into it, sought advice from my professors on how to address them and I came up with a pitch. I was naïve enough that I thought people from that organisation are going to call me and bring me to fix the problem I found. I was never contacted. I thought to myself, maybe my solution wasn’t correct, maybe my pitch was unprofessional.
Having gone through these experiences, I saw the benefit of GovHack. As someone who wants to be an entrepreneur or someone that wants to have a meaningful impact on society, I found GovHack very insightful. Those problems or challenges I was trying to find, are already defined by organisations, and the resources to attempt those challenges are made available, I was able to showcase my solution to the organisation as the projects are presented to them after the competition and there are likeminded individuals to share this path with to work towards a common goal. And, that is the highlight I encountered, I befriended people I would have most likely never met outside this event and now I have multiple entities with those individuals and we have co-founded businesses together.
How did the supportive environment and networking opportunities at GovHack contribute to your overall experience and project development?
The mentors and volunteers I had the privilege to get to know, have made a big impact on how I have been able to direct my vision to come up with a solution that I get to work. An example would be a gentleman from ATO, telling us and some of the other participants the wealth of knowledge and data that is accessible to everyone prepared by ATO to refine our project. The data is out there, but knowing the story behind it and where and how to find it is something I was able to learn in GovHack.
Could you tell us about the project you worked on during GovHack? What was its main focus or objective?
The project that our team worked on was about using data to identify the ideal location to start a business. Our solution used government data to provide insights for users to make impactful decisions before starting a business. It also attempted to help existing business owners to assess and evaluate their business location and to align their strategy with the trends of their surroundings including demographics, transport access and etc.
How did you come up with the idea for your project? Was it something you had been working on prior to the event, or did it develop during the hackathon?
In my professional career, I knew the business location was important. However, formulating this importance never crossed my mind, because I didn’t know where to begin and what resources I needed or are available to me and if they are, it’s probably expensive. The idea for our project came from GovHack. It was right there, it was one of the challenges. It was the proof I needed that the need for this solution exists.
What were some of the key features or innovations incorporated into your project? How did they contribute to addressing the problem or challenge you were trying to solve?
One of the features we were able to incorporate into our project was using geo-mapping and visualisation of open data such as data by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This helped provide a more holistic approach to the challenge defined by the Victorian state government, by combining siloed data on federal government-level data with state data.
How did you leverage open data and technology resources available at GovHack to enhance your project? Did they play a significant role in its success?
Our project would not have been possible without state and federal government data, and the custodians of those assets with GovHack. Those datasets that were used in this project, are now made available and it has been a golden resource that has fueled our success to this day.
Looking back, what would you say was the most rewarding aspect of participating in GovHack?
Connections and friendships formed by embracing open data initiatives have been the most rewarding of participating in GovHack and I plan to be part of the initiative of removing data silos and for the general public to know how to utilise such a wealth of resources that could one way or another better our lives.
In what ways did participating in GovHack benefit you personally and professionally?
Participating in GovHack has made me and our organisation to be more data-driven and make more informed decisions while having a transparent approach to our decision-making.
How has participating in GovHack influenced your career or educational path? Have you seen any tangible outcomes or opportunities as a result?
Our company, BizVision has been the result of our project. We are able to stand out from the crowd in our industry by utilising a resource available to everyone, however, simply having access or knowing this resource exists is not the entire story. For us, it has been knowing what the data represents and how it all fits together.
Can you share any specific ways in which the skills and experiences gained from GovHack have positively impacted your professional journey since the event?
Theoretically, I was adequately equipped to reason and plan for the project we had developed, due to my academic background. It was having a limited timeframe of two and a half days and the collaborative nature of the competition with other individuals with complementary skillsets to come up with the solution to implement the project that was key.
What would you say to someone who is hesitant about registering for GovHack? Why should they take the leap and be part of this event?
There is food for one, and you have the chance to meet people from all walks of life that you would probably not cross paths with in your regular daily routine. You will also get to action and beat procrastination and possibly come up with an idea that will lead to employment opportunities for yourself and other people as well.
