{"id":374,"date":"2014-06-02T14:30:23","date_gmt":"2014-06-02T06:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.www.innovationiseverywhere.com\/?p=374"},"modified":"2014-06-02T14:30:23","modified_gmt":"2014-06-02T06:30:23","slug":"everyday-hackathon-made-boat-one-day-protei-hong-kong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/everyday-hackathon-made-boat-one-day-protei-hong-kong\/","title":{"rendered":"Not your everyday hackathon: how we made a boat in one day with Protei in Hong Kong"},"content":{"rendered":"

To be honest, when I knew about this hackathon<\/strong>, I had mixed feelings. I have attended many hackathons in France and in Singapore this year, and as a non-developer, I just felt my contributions were minimal<\/strong>, it’s hard to gather a team and speak the same language with designers and tech people, and, well, as someone from the marketing side, I just spend my time watching desperately at screens with broken hopes to understand anything.<\/p>\n

\"cesar<\/a><\/p>\n

C\u00e9sar Harada’s leitmotiv<\/em><\/p>\n

But, hey, going to Protei’s hackathon, I just made a boat with 5 other non-technical guys and girls in a few hours<\/strong>, and this boat made it in the (almost) open sea in East Kowloon, Honk-Kong!<\/p>\n

Protei DIY boats\u00a0made out of pieces of wood, plastics, wires, foam, anything<\/h2>\n

My coming to Hong Kong was initially to reach quickly Shenzhen<\/strong> and explore the maker scene<\/strong> over there (which I got to do two months later<\/a> due to visa issues). A few connections from France to China got me in touch with C\u00e9sar Harada<\/a><\/strong>, an ex-MIT researcher<\/strong> now heading Protei<\/a><\/strong>, a startup building DIY boats<\/strong> he already tested in several environment missions, such as getting data on Fukushima’s radioactive waters, all with open-source software and open-hardware electronics. C\u00e9sar invited me to the hackathon, and I was excited like a kid to go there.<\/p>\n

\"cesar<\/a><\/p>\n

The Kowloon Bay, both as a background and a test field<\/em><\/p>\n

\"cesar<\/a><\/p>\n

What about a network of DIY boats?<\/em><\/p>\n

\"cesar<\/a><\/p>\n

Hong Kong and Shenzhen (north-west), quite a busy place on the sea<\/em><\/p>\n

The venue of the hackathon was already something quite interesting. Located in East Kowloon<\/strong>, a district of Hong-Kong bound to be profoundly rebuilt in the coming years, we were working from EKEO<\/a><\/strong>, a publicly owned agency which also hosted in the same time part of the Biennale of architecture of HK and Shenzhen<\/strong>, so a lot of artwork, architecture folks and prototypes surrounded us. And of course it doesn’t hurt when it comes to building a boat.<\/p>\n

After a rough training on the basics of sailing<\/strong>, we were put in a large room with all necessary materials. Foams, wood, pieces of cardboard and steel<\/strong>. All sorts of tool I didn’t know the name of even in French, mechanical and electrical (I told you I was non-technical). Glu, wielder, and also small engines, rotors, and, well, a few hours to make a boat<\/strong> that could make it somehow.<\/p>\n

The beauty of hardware: anyone with a will and a wielder can do things<\/h2>\n

The four teams<\/strong> made quite different boats, the main objective of the day was to make them float and move, then, if it proved ok, we could think of future developments like Protei’s boat, adding sensors to track down motion or environment data.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our team was funnily arranged, with one Italian, two American, one German, one Hong-Kong social enterprise guy, and me as a \u00ab\u00a0French-living-in-Singapore\u00a0\u00bb<\/strong>. We had quite different views but eventually settled for some sort of catamaran, and I must say we were able to make a first test after just an hour<\/strong> (buoyancy\u00a0checked in a baby’s swimming pool). Then we added a motor<\/strong> to make it go straight (second test successful in the docks nearby), and we even had the time later on to add a rotor<\/strong> to make the whole thing turn with a remote controller.<\/p>\n

\"hardware<\/a><\/p>\n

A Maker’s paradise!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hardware<\/a><\/p>\n

Most if not all materials come from waste, reuse, recycled stuff.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hardware<\/a><\/p>\n

The yellow sort-of-a-balloon was our first and decisive piece to build our boat<\/em><\/p>\n