Grand prize at the Adven­tureX Hacka­thon in China

What began as a spur-of-the-moment idea during his semester abroad in Shanghai ended with HfG student Franz Anhäupl winning the top prize at the Adven­tureX Hacka­thon in Hangzhou.

Adven­tureX is China’s largest hacka­thon. More than 4,000 people applied, and 800 were selected to take part. Once there, the teams had 72 hours to develop working proto­types from their initial ideas. The event was supported by around 30 compa­nies, which provided their own tracks, hard­ware and tech­no­lo­gies.

At the time, Franz was spen­ding a semester abroad at Tongji Univer­sity in Shanghai. Keen to take part in a hacka­thon in China himself, he got in touch with Chris­to­pher Pietsch, whom he knew from his time at the HfG’s in-house AI+D Lab. The two had already worked toge­ther on AI projects there. A few days later, Chris­to­pher was in Shanghai and the team was complete.

In Hang­zhou, the pair started out without a fixed plan. They expe­ri­mented with a Zilo smart ring, a Unitree robot dog and a deve­lo­p­ment board. It was only during the course of the hacka­thon that PawGuide emerged from these expe­ri­ments.

The idea is based on a situa­tion with which both were very fami­liar: you arrive at a large airport, don’t under­stand the language, aren’t quite sure where you need to go – and really don’t want to have to down­load and use yet another new app.

PawGuide ther­e­fore focuses on inter­ac­tion that is as simple as possible. The robot dog, Mira, is controlled by voice commands and is desi­gned to guide people through complex envi­ron­ments such as airports. The smart ring serves as direct access to the system. An addi­tional app allows users to book Mira in advance, but is not neces­sary for actual use.

For Franz and Chris­to­pher, it wasn’t just important that the system worked tech­ni­cally. The robot was intended to come across less like a machine and more like a helpful compa­nion – acces­sible to people who need to find their way around an unfa­mi­liar place, regard­less of how fami­liar they are with digital applications.

With PawGuide, the pair ulti­m­ately won over the jury and took the top prize in the Zilo Track.

Franz and Christopher’s victory at the Adven­tureX Hacka­thon under­lines a key message: inno­va­tive tech­no­logy only realises its full poten­tial through excel­lent design. The fact that the pair were able to impress with a strong user-centred approach, empathy and the removal of barriers to use reflects precisely the philo­sophy we teach at the university’s AI+D Lab. Their success in China impres­si­vely demons­trates that HfG talents excel not only in tradi­tional design but also in the deve­lo­p­ment of cutting-edge tech proto­types at the very highest inter­na­tional level.

photo credits: AdventureX