The Challenge
In a rapidly urbanizing world with increasing global travel and demand for real-time data, powerful navigation tools are more essential than ever. Our teams were tasked with merging their collective expertise to engineer a comprehensive turn-by-turn navigation application complete with a driving simulation function.
- Turn-by-Turn Navigation App: This should not just direct users but truly guide them, featuring real-time updates, precise ETA predictions, and an intuitive GUI to elevate the user experience.
- Drive Simulation Tool: More than basic navigation, users should be able to virtually drive from one location to another, encompassing functionalities like dynamic map resizing, zoom capabilities, and fluid route centering as navigation commences.
Food for thought
Spanning two days, the hackathon wasn’t just about coding. We ensured our teams were fueled with wholesome breakfasts, endless coffee, drinks, and yes, the classic hacker food: pizza. Each unit, driven by the potent features of Incari Studio 2023.1, channeled their vision to reality. Let’s spotlight our teams.
Team A
Introducing Team A – Jan (Software Developer), Jeremy (Senior AI Developer), Janine (Low Level team lead), and Stan (Software Developer). This team harnessed the Kanban methodology using Trello, ensuring efficiency through hourly check-ins and collaboration tools like MS Teams and Gitlab. They faced hurdles, notably the challenging MapLibre library and their unfamiliarity with navigation systems. However, their teamwork and adaptability shone through, underscoring the hackathon’s rapid learning and collaboration potential. Their experience also highlighted a need for better C++ open-source documentation.
Team B
Team B stood out with its collaborative approach. This team consisted of Maxim (Technical Artist), Vitali (core development Team Lead), Philipp (Software Developer), and Ralf (Software Developer)). As their team was combined out of experts from diverse departments, the team efficiently distributed tasks: rendering, logic, external services, and design. Leveraging Incari’s drag-and-drop interface and real-time prototyping, they integrated third-party services like MapLibre Native, Geoapify, and MapTiler into their UI design. Especially notable was their integration of customizable map styles, properties, and routing functions via Incari Logic. Maxim led the design front, crafting the visual elements in Figma before importing them into Incari Studio. Although it was challenging to realize their ambitious vision within the hackathon’s timeframe, Team B’s strategic workflow enabled them to successfully merge every element by day two.
Team C
Embarking on the Incari Hackathon, Team C adopted an exploratory approach, with each member initially attempting to navigate the intricacies of the MapLibre repo individually. Peter (Graphics Development Team Lead), Robert (Software Developer), Konstantin (Software Developer), and Zvonimir (Software Developer) made up team C. While the absence of a defined concept and an orchestrator for planning posed challenges, their decision to solely use RenderEngine streamlined their focus. Despite grappling with the team’s unfamiliarity with MapLibre and the ambitious two-day timeframe, they innovatively employed Skia for path drawing, diverging from MapLibre. Their journey, marked by camaraderie and learning, culminated in a foundational working project. Reflecting, the team emphasized the merit of pre-hackathon planning and task parallelization. Their forward vision includes enhanced 2D scene features and deeper integration with Incari tools. Their Skia technique and screen-to-geo coordinate conversions are valuable assets to their hackathon results.
Crowning the Champions
Around 4 pm on Friday, everyone had to close their laptops and join the rest of the Incari team in the kitchen for the final presentations. After long deliberation by our carefully selected jury, we had a winner. Congratulations to team B for winning the Incari 2023 summer hackathon! We are incredibly proud of the final projects that the three teams managed to complete.
The Incari 2023 Hackathon stands as a testament to our culture of collaboration, innovation, and relentless pursuit of excellence. We’re a testament to the idea that unity breeds possibility. Interested in being a part of our journey? Discover our open positions.
