Winners of our first Facebook Online Hackathon announced

Expanding on our annual Developer Circles Community Challenge and the in-person hackathons we held across North America last year, we were excited to launch our brand new Facebook Online Hackathon series for global developers earlier this month.

We know that building opportunities like hackathons are a great way for aspiring and experienced innovators to develop new skills, grow their networks and ship breakthrough solutions - whether they’re creating their first-ever coding project to showcase in a job interview, or bringing that advanced engineering idea to life.

We also know that providing special access to product resources, mentoring and trouble-shooting helps set developers up for success when applying new technologies to solve challenges. That’s why we’re committed to supporting the journey and experience of all developers on our platform.

For our first hackathon in this new series, we opened up three tech tracks for participants - Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR) and Messaging - and offered up to $21,000 in cash prizes, as well as the opportunity to join us at our annual developer conference, F8 2021.

Given the many social issues currently arising around coronavirus (COVID-19), we were also inspired to see developers ship a range of projects aimed at addressing some of the challenges being experienced as a result of this global pandemic.

Our winners

Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Creating intuitive solutions using PyTorch

First place ($3,000 + an invitation, flights and accommodation for F8 2021):
Torch Drowsiness Monitor
A drowsiness and attention monitor for driving featuring PyTorch’s Computer Vision

Second place ($2,500):
PneumoScan
A radiology tool built on PyTorch supporting the COVID-19 pandemic

Third place ($1,500):
hep-recommender
An AI-based system for recommending scientific articles

Augmented Reality (AR)
Building immersive solutions using Spark AR’s World Effects

First place ($3,000 + an invitation, flights and accommodation for F8 2021):
Rabbit Coder
An AR solution teaching programming concepts in the form of a puzzle

Second place ($2,500):
COVID-19 Coronavirus
An educational AR experience on the virus, its impact, and prevention measures

Third place ($1,500):
RollercoastAR
A gaming experience enabling users to customize and create an AR roller-coaster simulator

Messaging
Empowering conversations using Messenger

First place ($3,000 + an invitation, flights and accommodation for F8 2021):
ReWise: AI-powered revision bot
An interactive Messenger bot to help students revise their coursework

Second place ($2,500):
Sign Language Dictionary Bot
A Messenger bot enabling users to upload to sign language videos for dictionary definitions

Third place ($1,500):
MathPhysy
An online tutoring service for maths and physics delivered through Messenger

Congratulations to these inspiring innovators and thank you to everyone who participated!

New hackathons coming soon

Remember, this is just the beginning. Keep an eye out for the next online hackathon in our series by signing up for our Facebook for Developers email newsletter.

For those keen to continue building, I also wanted to let you know about another special hackathon announced yesterday.

#BuildforCOVID19 Global Online Hackathon

We’ve seen time and time again that our developer ecosystem is passionate and purposeful about leveraging technology to deliver software that builds community and solves real-world problems.

As we all consider the timely and meaningful action we can take to tackle issues related to COVID-19, there’s never been a better time for our community to ideate and innovate together.

I’d therefore like to take this opportunity to encourage as many of you as possible to join the new #BuildforCOVID19 Global Online Hackathon that is being supported by Facebook alongside other companies and platforms in the tech industry, as well as partners including the World Health Organization and the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub.

Submissions for the hackathon officially open on Thursday March 26; however you are welcome to register now to start brainstorming.

Thank you again to all of our hackathon participants around the world!

Together we can achieve more.