Cathay Pacific has reported success from its seventh annual Cathay Hackathon, the airline’s tech event where young innovators can present their ideas that can enhance the travel experience for Cathay Pacific’s passengers, elevate Cathay’s lifestyle offerings, improve Cathay Cargo’s operations, and increase the operational efficiency of HK Express.
This year’s Cathay Hackathon attracted more than 1,500 applications from university students in Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland and overseas. Following a selection process, 74 teams involving a total of 300 students were invited to participate in a 24-hour online ‘Development Day’ at which participants created, refined and prototyped their ideas before presenting them to a panel of industry experts during the First Pitch event.
Ten teams were shortlisted to enter the Final Pitch event at the Qianhai Kerry Centre in Shenzhen, where they had the opportunity to showcase their concepts to Cathay’s senior management as well as the judging panel.
Participants in the Cathay Hackathon explored emerging technologies including machine learning and artificial intelligence, found out about acceleration opportunities to bring ideas to life, and were given a behind-the-scenes glimpse into Cathay’s operations – both in the air and on the ground – at its Cathay City headquarters.
The event was supported by various partners, including Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), BytePlus, Cyberport, Google Cloud, HK Express, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks (HKSTP), Hong Kong International Airport, Huawei, iOS Club, Microsoft, and China Merchants Shekou Cruise Homeport, all of which provided participants with the advice, tools and resources to ideate, develop and refine their concepts.
This year’s winning team, GingTrip, comprised students from various universities in Hong Kong. Their winning idea is a modular trolley that could automate the recycling and sorting of cabin waste on HK Express flights. The idea is that the waste data collected is processed automatically and loaded onto a dashboard, which helps inform and enhance data-driven decision-making.
GingTrip team member Andy Ng said, “It’s great to be back at the Cathay Hackathon. We took part last year and learnt a great deal from the guidance and feedback provided by our coaches, subject matter experts and judges. This year, with the Hackathon expanding into the wider GBA [Greater Bay Area], we gained valuable insights into the region’s growing tech landscape and were honoured to come out on top. We would like to thank the Cathay Hackathon team for creating such a unique experience for all of us.”
GingTrip took home the top prize, which included round-trip business-class tickets to any destination in Cathay Pacific’s network as well as a combined 100,000 Asia Miles. The winners were also offered fast-track access to ideation funding from incubation programmes, as well as a fast-track to Cathay’s Digital & IT Summer Internship and Graduate Trainee Programmes.
Cathay Pacific’s director of digital and IT, Lawrence Fong, said of the Final Pitch event: “In its seventh edition, the Cathay Hackathon made its foray into the wider Greater Bay Area for the first time this year. This has not only provided us with a platform to engage with a wider pool of young aspiring tech enthusiasts, but also reinforced our commitment to fostering creativity and innovation, and cultivating a new generation of digital talent for the aviation industry. The ingenuity and resourcefulness on display has been truly inspiring, and it goes to show how talented these young individuals are and how much can be accomplished with a progressive and can-do spirit.”
