2016年CRI 48 Hour Hackathon Event Kicks off in Shenzhen

"I think the Internet of things will increase the connection between real people."

"More and more things would be connected. It would be easier for us to control something remotely."

"The technologies can be used at rural areas, which will, I suppose make them less rural."

The Internet of Things, or IoT is a collection of essential computer devices.

From measuring the temperature of a room to tracking the flow of a specific product, what IoT can do is very scalable.

This Hackathon event wants to explore the social impact that IoT can exert. To be more specific, to show how the latest IoT technologies can improve the education and livelihoods 1 of left-behind children in China.

Kadallah Burrowes is a third year student from New York University in Shanghai.

He and his team members are trying to make a check mark device for left-behind children, to help them build stronger relationships with their parents.

Burrowes explains how this device works.

"The kids will have the device that allows for a dot. So they go to school, the teacher will put their finger on the device. And the check mark will say 'OK, we've done it.' And at that point, the kids will get a light up to show they've done it. And at the same time, the parents, wherever they are, they also have this device. So if the parent goes to work, then the check mark say 'I've gone to work today'. And it will also shows that their kids have gone to school or not."

Kadallah says, the check mark device will work like a game for kids, to inspire them to do what they need to do.

"So if the kids feel like it's a small competition, they will act like 'oh today I really want to beat my parents, I'd like doing all of responsibilities I have to do', even though they are not necessarily live together."

A series of symposiums, focusing on the topics like why IoT matters and how it works have been held during this event.

Yashesh Shroff, program manager of the Internet of Things with Intel Corporation, also a speaker of the symposiums, says he is impressed by the solutions brought up by the students.

"There are students who are very good at design thinking, there are students who are very good with coding. There are students who are very good at ideation. And if you put all of these different elements of innovation together, the solution they bring out are essentially 2 brilliant."

This Hackathon event is co-chaired by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Intel, and New York University Shanghai.

Christian 3 Grewell, professor with NYU Shanghai, says this event can open students' eyes as well as help them learn about how to work with others.

"What I hope they could learn is: A, this stuff takes a lot of time and you constantly run into problems. Especially over this period of time. And because they spent a lot of time working on this, together in groups, you learn a value of leadership. So it's team work. The second thing I hope they learn maybe is more about the challenge itself. Can you build something, actually has a feed in this market?"

The event will conclude this afternoon. 6 groups will present products completed in the past 48 hours.

For CRI, I'm Niu Honglin.