HackIT VII, Chandler’s Ford 31st March to 1st April 2016
After many weeks of planning, the eve of the global HackIT VII challenge had finally arrived. Up until this point I had been a co-organiser for the Chandler’s Ford event, but due to an unfortunate planning accident, Eddie (my co-organiser) was enjoying some quality time with his family whilst I was dragging my long suffering wife around the supermarket looking for hacker-food.
Dr Alison Vincent presenting the Keynote Address at HackIT VII, Chandler’s Ford
The morning arrived in Chandler’s Ford, and three teams were ready to face the challenge of spending the next 24hrs developing their idea in the field of Security:
- Team Trespass (Rob, Leigh, Dan and Andy)
- Team Ace Of the Time Vortex (Csaba)
- Team IoT Anonmouse (Jon, Andrew and Neil).
The event was kicked-off by an entertaining and motivating presentation on innovation at Cisco by Dr. Alison Vincent of the UKI country leadership
team, and reminded us that Cisco needs innovation to thrive, and we are fortunate that are many sponsored opportunities available for us to do so.
As the teams split up to work their magic, I opened the Telepresence bridge so that we were connected with all of the other sites around the world. The scale of the event is impressive, and a real credit to the efforts of the global organising team.
Stuart Moulton putting the scale of hacking and Cyber Crime into perspective
Just after lunch we were treated to a thoroughly engaging, yet slightly scary presentation from Stuart Moulton in the UKI Cybersecurity sales team. This was on the changing nature of Cyber-Crime, and how this has grown in recent years to become a multi-million pound/dollar/bitcoin industry, with criminal not only targeting the massive financial institutions but also small businesses and individuals. As soon as I got back to my PC I changed some of my passwords.
More teamwork followed, with the teams re-convening for a communal feast at 19:30. After the food and a social session to play board games and PS4, the teams got back down to the job in hand.
Whilst two teams retreated home late in the evening, Team Trespass continued to work through the night in the office. Choosing a language that only one of their team knew how to program certainly must have added to the challenge.
I too stayed onsite, making use of the sleeping bag and camp ‘cot’ I bought when we lived in California in case we were de-homed by the Big One, the inevitable-and-long-overdue-but-expected-anytime earthquake. I woke up absolutely freezing about 05:30 and made a mental note that I should have brought a sleeping bag more suitable to the British climate.
All teams were back in bright and early for breakfast and to prepare for the presentations to the judges, and after three great presentations and some intensive discussion among the judges it was announced that Team Trespass had won this heat, and were through to the semi-finals on 12th April. There are no losers in an event such as this, with Teams IoT Anonmouse and Ace of the Time Vortex working through a patent application in CPOL.
After dinner Team Photo. From left: Jon Gadsden, Leigh Burton, Rob Westbrook, Andy Quayle (kneeling), Dan Miller, Csaba Toth, Neil Ottaway and Andrew Ransome.
Unfortunately Team Trespass didn’t make it through to the finals, but there have been a number of enquiries for follow up, and all projects that reach the semi-finals are promoted and vetted for inclusion in the IT incubator, or directly with interested BUs.
I’d just like to thank Eddie for his help in organising, Alison and Stuart for giving such engaging presentations, Steve, Jeremy and Stuart for judging, all of the teams for participating and the HackIT VII global organisers for their support in hosting the event. Hope to do it all again next year.
Good luck to the global finalists who will have another round of presentations to give on 20th April.
The winning Team Trespass with judges Jeremy Rees and Steve Taylor (Stuart Moulton was out of shot on Webex)
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