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Auburn iRACE Hackathon 2022 Focuses on Sustainability

News

“Touchless Commitment to People, Profit, and the Planet” is the theme for the 2022 Auburn iRace Hackathon series that focuses on sustainability and connectivity.  Auburn University is launching year three of the invention competition that focuses on building touch free solutions leveraging QR- and NFC-enabled assets.  QWASI, RLG, and Cellotape are partnering again to empower students with cutting edge technology to build designs of the future.

Register for the 2022 Hackathon here.

The main purpose of starting the Auburn iRACE Hackathon was to really push the use of emerging technology and produce practical applications that can assist during COVID and beyond. We really love what we do.”

WIS KWON
DIRECTOR OF AUBURN UNIVERSITY INNOVATION IN RETAIL AND CONSUMER EXPERIENCE (iRACE) INITIATIVE

auburn irace hackathon
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million tons of plastic gets created yearly, and weighs the same as the entire human population.

UN ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME (UNEP)

0%

is the estimate of plastic recycled in the US.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

$0bn

million tons of greenhouse gas emissions are due to the production and disposal of plastic.

US CLIMATE CHANGE

Exclusive Experiences
QWASI SOLUTION

QWASI has a proprietary variable data IoT management software that enables brands to manage micro location assets using QR and NFC with a global data insights with zero waste activation.  QWASI and Cellotape are the leaders in IoT enablement, building award-winning innovative mobile experiences with top brands for over twenty years.

“At QWASI we believe it is important to share technology from the business sector with students so they can engage in practical activities that also allow them to be creative from an innovation standpoint.  At this moment in history, we are being challenged with the extraordinary task of reducing global waste at scale and building new sustainable zero waste solutions.  We are excited to bring the technology addressing this challenge to the  education sector to engage students in the creative process to innovate new sustainable solutions. We are excited to work with the iRace Initiative on year three of this event, and we are happy to offer sustainable hackathons to all universities,

Lara Hanson, Chief Innovation Officer, QWASI Technology.

auburn irace hackathon - innovation for zero waste
Soultions
2022 AUBURN HACKATHON

The 2022 Hackathon, “Touchless Commitment to People, Profit, and the Planet”, will educate students on the sustainable impact of contactless technology across various sectors.

In this iRACE event, students will learn about how NFC-based contactless IoT applications have been applied to sustainable product and service designs in diverse industries and enjoy a hands-on workshop of creating their own IoT solution using a technology kit provided by Resource Label Group and data analytics powered by QWASI.  Industry and sustainability experts will serve as judges and select a winner based on 4 categories: creativity, innovation, usefulness, and WOW factor, the judges included Vans Customs Director – Derrick Klunchoo + Christine Abel, LVMH Chandon Product Innovation – Joel McGlynn + Elise Lund, and Auburn University’s Head of Sustainability – Mike Kensler.

auburn university hackathon 2022
Results
2022 HACKATHON RESULTS

+40 students and professors participated in the events

+1400 minutes of engagement time on NFC-related activities

+275 hacks completed

The theme of the 2022 Hackathon was “Contactless Service: How Far Can We Go With NFC?” With contactless engagement growing by 80% during COVID, QWASI and Auburn University wanted to explore innovation in this space, and created a series of activities for students to learn more about the technology and an event series for students to build out those innovative solutions. The creativity of the ideas, high-level collaboration amongst the teams, and insights derived from engagement with the assets make this event so successful.

Auburn irace hackathon 2021 results
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