OS Hackathon: What is the open-innovation challenge?
Tags: ordnancesurvey, webdev, hackathon, geospatial
Published: 2021-09-08 15:08:35

###In a recent series of blog posts, we’ve explored how the OS Map & Hack challenges aim to solve problems within sustainability and transportation on a national, organisational, and individual level.

The fourth and final challenge is one of ‘open-innovation.’ As the name suggests, the challenge allows limitless scope and creativity. It’s intended for those who may be new to the developer headspace, and/or have an amazing new idea in mind and a desire to build on that concept, and maybe, even help others explore ideas of their own.

The issue of sustainability is one that will affect us all; indeed, sudden and severe changes in the planet’s weather and climate is already having an effect. We reach a moment in time where differences need to be put aside in order to problem-solve something much bigger than ourselves for the greater good.

**Can this ever be achieved? Does it seem too good to be true?**

It will take a combined effort of all; and fortunately, the changes required to achieve these goals may already be in motion. The technology is there, we just need to work together to put the most effective solutions in place.

Technological innovation is in an exponential growth phase, across different areas and almost every industry. Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, next-generation connectivity, autonomous tech and robotics – once the science-fiction dreams that were years away, and now already part of our everyday lives. And they continue to enhance it. It could be with these technologies, forging a disruptive path of innovation, that we find some of the solutions to reaching our sustainability targets.

For example, robotics is key within the manufacturing sector for producing infrastructure and vehicles at an increased pace. Applied with machine learning, it can also identify the quickest and most sustainable methods to the development process.

The deployment of the 5G infrastructure changes the way we communicate and approach data across the world – this could also provide and share real-time data related to the way we manage our energy storage and consumption. It could also be used for gathering real-time information for charging networks and EV routing.

What these technologies need are the new ideas and methods to put them into action, and make the most out of them. Iterative engineering methods and rapid prototyping are examples of developers and data scientists changing the game. They build on existing concepts and architectures that, coupled with the tools and communities to support, can move at a rate never seen before.

Geospatial data is a key contributor to solving sustainability issues, and it becomes an essential piece of the puzzle for analysis and modelling, but to also scale the production and deployment. Particularly in diverse landscapes such as Great Britain.

**If you are interested in getting into this space, or collaborating with other great minds, OS Map & Hack provides a great opportunity to do so. For more information and registration, [visit our Hackathon page](https://ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-government/developers/hackathon?utm_source=devto&utm_campaign=devrel&utm_content=hackathon-challenge4).**