First paramate hackathon: #GoLiveOnMonday

We want our paramate platform to become the widespread tool to automate design processes and enable customization. Therefore we open it up to the community out there and invite everyone to join our journey. Last weekend we hosted our first paramate hackathon in Berlin with great support from our partners EIT Digital and Ultrahack. We were amazed what happened…

As you might know already, paramate simplifies and automates the design
process for user-specific custom products – which is highly relevant in 3D printing applications. This design automation can be relevant for any industry: whether patient specific prosthetics, mechanically optimized industrial components, or personalized jewelry. We developed applications for companies like Volkswagen, Deutsche Bahn, Ford, Schmalz or Protiq to accelarate their AM business.

But paramate is neither some kind of a magic trick nor a black box: it is a software platform anyone can use to create automated design processes and innovative products. We wanted to test how hard it is for external developers to apply our cloud software in a limited time period.

So we sent out an open call for interested developer teams to join our very first hackathon! In other words: a challenge to use our software platform and create an amazing AM application in just 48 hours (yes, forty-eight hours).

We received numerous interesting applications and selected 8 teams and 30 highly motivated young developers from 7 nationalities to Berlin. Combined in teams they brought a perfect experience mix: Computer aided design (CAD), Coding (script), Web design (java script) and Product design. Impressive!

They would work together in teams for the next 48 hours. Our partner EIT Digital was a fantastic host: providing unlimited food, drinks and even sleeping accommodation. A big thank you for this!

During the weekend we saw a spirit and atmosphere that you have in mind when you imagine the perfect start-up story. We saw stand-up-meetings, pitch sessions, flipcharts and sketches, breakout sessions and – of course – a lot of Mate tea.

Most important for us: the teams dived into paramate right away and it did not take long to see the first results. The teams worked on various projects to turn ideas of customizable products into reality. Our team of trinckle developers who were available as support, were discussing at eye level with the participants to create the best solutions.

The big highlight of the weekend were the final project presentations. We were thrilled to see the advanced applications that the young teams had achieved with paramate in just 48 hours. This was particularly true as they had taken their first look at our system just one day before.

Our jury selected their 3 favourite applications and the winning teams received a total prize money of 5000€. It was a tough choice for our jury but in the end three teams stood out. We could write separate articles about each project, but we would like to briefly introduce you to the three winners below.

We are looking forward to see more people working independently with our paramate platform. More than ever after this weekend!

These three guys developed a configurator for very specific and low volume camera caps. The caps are created in no time by specifying a diameter.
An additional attachment clip for saftey reasons and a logo and QR-Code for individualization can be added to the cap.

These guys want to develop a prosthesis for children. This alone is a cool project, of course. But not enough: They want to equip the prosthesis with superpowers – like a integrated ball-throwing mechanism. This way they hope to make it easier for the children to perceive the prosthesis as something positive. Additionally the size and color of the prosthesis can be configured.

Last but not least: This team focussed on cameras as well. They developed a camera handle that is not even and straight. This handle is adapted to the customers hand by specifying its length and its width. Optional mounting holes and patterns can be added to the handle.