This week, we challenged students, designers, entrepreneurs and other creative people to come up with the solutions of tomorrow. The goal of this hackathon was to create new solutions, concepts and ideas to solve important community challenges, where viztech and digital communications technology could be part of the solution.
The Media Lab Hackathon was powered by Deloitte Digital, and their dedicated and professional hackathon team, flown in for the occasion.
A total of ten teams could choose between two topics: Sparebanken Vest's The Bank of the Future, or Bergen 2.0 by the municipality of Bergen
Dag Inge Ulstein introducing Bergen 2.0 for the participants
Commissioner in the municipality of Bergen, Dag Inge Ulstein, highlighted the importance of digitalization, as he presented the municipality of Bergen's task for the hackathon.
– There are so many important issues we need to solve, and many of them can be solved from Bergen, even in 24 hours, he said.
The participants got a crash course in IBM Watson and had access to the technology throughout the event, assisted by IBM personnel. Expert facilitators from Sparebanken Vest and the municipality of Bergen were also present, providing valuable advice and input.
'Tjommi' the best idea for the municipality of Bergen 2.0
After a thrilling 24 hour frenzy of brainstorming, workshops and prototyping, the teams went through a live pitch session in the showroom of the Media Lab. Here, their ideas were evaluated by criterias like overall impression, coolness-factor, level of innovation, user potential and technical execution.
In the Bergen 2.0 category, the best idea would get NOK 20.000 and the chance to develop the concept further through an internship in the municipality of Bergen.
After an impressive pitch, it was the RAMPS team who came out on top. They created a digital assistant called 'Tjommi', which will help people moving to Bergen understand what it means to be a true "bergenser". The team consisted of Rune Eikemo, Audun Gulbrandsen, Malin Fjell Olsen, Petter Elvevoll and Sara Pedersen Stene, all students at the University of Bergen.
Team RAMPS presenting their concept, 'Tjommi' the chatbot.
When it came to creativity and output, the jury concluded that Team RAMPS nailed it.
– The winners stood out in a special way. Integration of citizens is an important issue to handle, not only in Bergen, but all over the globe, Dag Inge Ulstein said.
Possible areas of application, and development through AI and machine learning, are just limited by imagination. Team RAMPS is now looking forward to explore the opportunities in an internship with the municipality.
– It's our first hackathon, and we are of course thrilled and honoured to win first prize. The internship is a big bonus, and it sounds interesting to further develop the idea together with the municipality, Audun Gulbrandsen said.
Team RAMPS: Sara Pedersen Stene, Malin Fjell Olsen, Rune Eikemo and Audun Gulbrandsen, with the 1st prize.
Bergen Cortex won second place and NOK 10.000 with a smart solution for effective resource management and optimization. By implementing smartness, sensors and big data analysis, reuse and shared use of buildings, workplaces and leisure areas can prove to be a lot more effective, and the team were successful in deploying the demo on the IBM Cloud, a feat that was highlighted by the jury. 
Bergen Cortex: Robert Sasak, Kostiantyn Denysenko, Anders L. Hurum, Emil Lindfors, with their reward.
Increasing customer loyalty with gamification
In the Sparebanken Vest's Bank of the Future task, INNOVARE came out on top, winning NOK 20.000 for their idea of an app that uses gamification to increase customer loyalty.
Team Innovare with the winning pitch.
– We had a hard time picking the winner, but we do like the idea of customers keeping a lifelong relationship with the bank. The winning team has come up with a concept that can be relevant for the customers throughout their lifetime. We also like the idea of gamification, said member of the jury, Bjørg Marit Eknes from Sparebanken Vest, as she awarded the prize to Steffen Hoff, Michelle Sæther, Even Lokøy and Olle Nyberg, all students from the M. Sc of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at HVL.
The winning team had a clear idea from the start:
– We knew that we had to work hard to get all the details right. We quickly identified customer loyalty as the key component in our task, and it also proved to be one of the deciding factors for the jury, said Steffen Hoff, from team Innovare. 
Team Innovare: Steffen Hoff, Olle Nyberg, Michelle Sæther and Even Lokøy
Team 4 came second, and won NOK 10.000 for 'Del Din Del' - a solution that focuses heavily on the concept of sharing and corporate social responsibility. 
Team 4: Maria Sannes, John Grieg, Candida Sylta, Halvard Alvheim Vegum and Andreas Larsen.
More photos from the hackathon:
Day 1, Day 2
Other articles on the event:
Sparebanken Vest: Skaper morgendagens bank på 24 timer
Sparebanken Vest: Appen med banktjenester for livsløpet tok seieren i Hackaton 2017
Bergens Tidende: Med kunstig intelligens vil Malin lære trøndere å bli ekte bergenser (paywall)