MANILA — The operator of the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT-1) on Monday launched a competition that seeks to engage students and professionals in creating solutions using information technology (IT) to improve the operations of the railway system.
Dubbed Hackatren, it aims to crowdsource IT applications to ensure better commuter experience in LRT-1. Hackatren is a joint initiative of the Light Rail Manila Corporation (LRMC) and the De La Salle College of St. Benilde Hub for Innovation and Inclusion (DLS-CSB-HSI).
The contest is open to all Filipinos 18 years old and above, who have expertise on programming, designing, and coding softwares.
Interested applicants must form a team of three to four members consisting of a software designer or architect while the rest should be coders.
“We will be selecting the Top 3 among the Hackatren entries. Among these, their IT solutions will be applied to improve LRT-1 operations,” Randy Sac, head of LRMC Information Management and Technology, said in a press briefing.
“We aim to crowdsource solutions to improve commuting experience,” he added.
The LRMC official cited that the solutions, crafted through the competition, might be useful in predicting the volume of passengers on the railway stations, the number of available trains and their headway times, among others.
“The development of the prototype of application must have quality and completeness and must be unique and creative,” Sac said.
Prizes for the contest will be as follows: PHP100,000 for the champion, PHP50,000 for the first runner-up and PHP25,000 for the second runner-up.
Registration is open from June 11 to 30, 2018. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to the Hackatren pre-hack day on June 30, where IT experts and mentors from LRMC will orient participants in preparation for the main Hackatren event. Qualified teams will move on to the Hackatren event on July 14-15, 2018.
LRMC is a consortium put up by Metro Pacific Investments Corp., Ayala Corp., and Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings. It took over the operations and management of LRT-1 in September 2015. (Aerol John Pateña with reports from Coleen May Abante, OJT/PNA)
