Europe: Can you Hack it?

DBEI is pleased to announce a new event to our European offering: The DBEI Hackathon! Join us in Edinburgh on Wednesday 9th October for a one day sprint into AEC exploration and innovation!

We’re looking for building professionals, software developers, graphic designers, AEC students and anyone else who wants a hands-on experience to discover the future of AEC, no coding experience required. We’ll ask you a little bit about your background to try to help everyone get the best experience from the event.

What will the DBEI hackathon look like in Europe?

A one-day design sprint-like event where teams work together, on a specific idea, with the goal to create usable software or hardware as a functioning prototype or product by the end of the event.  With the theme, Generative Design in Practice, we will be looking for ideas that can automate a combination of conflicting goals to reveal solutions to practical building and infrastructure problems (See some examples below). Whether you’d like to explore building massing, steel detailing, duct routing, or any other problem in building design, or you have ideas about how this process can be applied to building operations, we’re looking for generative outcomes that make their way into conventional design, fabrication or operation solutions.

Example ideas!

Use generative design concepts/create programs to help solve the following ideas:

Idea: Create a Stadium seating plan that maximizes view quality while also maximizing attendance.

Idea: Pour concrete for a quantity of columns within a deadline, taking into account the required crew, endurance of formwork and number of forms.

Idea: Space plan a hospital with minimal nurses stations with maximum visibility and shortest travel distance to patient rooms.

Idea: Design a minimal building envelope area to lower construction and operating costs with minimal distance from core to envelope to increase light penetration while meeting the target square footage.

How will it work?

Each group will work on your respective project idea. You can either form a group prior to the event (maybe get a few of your friends or colleagues together) or sign up individually and join a group on site.

If you have a specific idea for your hackathon group that you want to pitch let us know either during the application process or at the event, otherwise you can just sign up and join a team when you arrive.

Whether you have an idea of how things should work in AEC, want to try out your visual programming or coding skills with a team, or want to bring requirements for generative design workflows from your business, we’re interested in your contribution. You bring the laptop, we’ll bring the coffee and meals, and perhaps a couple of surprise guests to help you get going. We’re looking forward to seeing you there!