NEXT MONTH: HACK IOT HARDWARE WITH COMCAST AT THE MACHINEQ SMART CITY HACKATHON

Philadelphia has spent the better part of a year serving as a testing ground of sorts for an innovative team inside Comcast. Since last October, this team has been quietly developing a new Internet of Things (IoT) business called machineQ, a network designed for the implementation of smart cities technologies, among other innovative uses.

Not only can the machineQ network gather, transmit and create intelligence from the physical world via sensors, but it has the potential to have a huge impact on how we think about solving challenges and innovating in our cities.

The team at Technical.ly has been spending the last few weeks thinking about all the cool ways hardware and software can interact on this platform. Now, we want to help bring even more ideas to life. That’s why Technical.ly and the machineQ team at Comcast are hosting a one-day IoT hackathon at the Comcast Center on June 9 and 10. Each developer team at the hackathon will have access to devices and sensors that pair with software tools, in order to create open source solutions for a smarter cities using low-range, wide area (LoRaWAN) technology.

Here are some applications that could be created using these new technologies:

Outdoor Lighting: Sensors that automatically regulate and schedule lights to control energy consumption and luminosity.
Traffic lights and Safety: Protect pedestrians and bikers by reducing traffic congestion around campuses and adjusting speed limits in populated areas.
Bikes: Equip a bike share system with sensors to track how they’re being used and minimize lost bikes.
Smart Parking and Parking Meters: Reduce traffic congestion and monitor the availability of parking spaces.
Those are just a few use cases — we know you’ll have even better ideas.

Did we mention there are giveaways? Each attendee will receive (and keep) an Arduino-based, network-enabled development board that will allow them to create exciting solutions at home. The hackathon’s winning teams will take home more than $7,500 in cash and prizes.

Plus, we’re working with a number of exciting partners on the initiative: familiar tech names like Comcast and Code for Philly, the City of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Internet of Things Meetup and BresslerGroup, as well as technology partners Actility, ClearBlade, Dent, Semtech and many more to come.