Rockwell Automation Announces Winners of Virtual 24toCode Hackathon With Cisco

Global tech, software and programming teams create solutions for real-world business challenges

MILWAUKEE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE: ROK) the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and digital transformation, announced today the winners of its 24toCode hackathon, the first virtual contest of its kind honoring tech wizards for creative business solutions.

The hackathon event, held from September 17-19, and in partnership with Cisco, provided a virtual forum for technology, software coding and programming teams globally to apply their problem-solving skills to real-world challenges that affect the industrial software and automation industry.

“At Rockwell Automation, we promote a learn-by-doing culture. We know that innovation results from the collaboration of different voices exchanging and cultivating new ideas,” said Chris Nardecchia, senior vice president, Software & Control, and chief information officer at Rockwell Automation. “It is wonderful to see a group of people from diverse backgrounds and geographies come together to solve real-world business problems, by combining human ingenuity with machine and operations data.”

Teams developed solutions for one of four business challenges in the categories of manufacturing optimization, sustainability, visual system modernization and dynamic filtering.

“In this new working environment, it is all about disrupting. It is no longer about thinking outside the box; there is no box. We must throw out everything we know and get to work finding new ways to fix things in our world,” said Ruba Borno, senior vice president and general manager, Global CX Centers at Cisco. “The spirit of innovation and intellectual curiosity is at the core of 24toCode, and we are proud to be part of it.”

A total of $10,000 was awarded to winners with prize money split equally among team members. The 24toCode winning teams and their projects:

First place ($4,000 prize)
Team: NoNameJustCode
Team Members: Thomas Keller (Germany), Christian Renner (Germany), Stefan Schotte (France) and Sven Thiel (Germany)
Solution for dynamic filtering: The team developed code that collects data in real-time from all points on a plant floor and transmits it into the cloud as fast as possible. Plant engineers can then identify issues at all stages of manufacturing and what devices caused them to mitigate further disruption to operations.

Second place ($3,000 prize)
Team: Death Star Contractors
Team Members: Shahid Anchummal, Eiven Wong and Manju Venugopal (Singapore)
Solution for visual system modernization: Members created a visualization tool that helps customers understand the compatibility of their current systems. The dashboard shows where a customer’s equipment is in its lifecycle and produces recommendations for new solutions and products.

Third place ($2,000 prize)
Team: Rockwell Imachination
Team Members: Meiling He, Xiangyong Luo, Gino Maulini and Simon J. Vancina (United States)
Solution for manufacturing optimization: The team designed an automated daily employee staffing assignment schedule for manufacturing facilities. The innovative approach automates the time-consuming manual planning process leading to greater productivity and output.

Honorable mention ($1,000 prize)
Team: CRON
Team Members: Julian Singkham, Aqeel Al Shafei, Noah Kennedy and Isaiah Rondeau (United States)
Solution for dynamic filtering: The team developed a way of identifying anomalies in the manufacturing process. The team demonstrated success in transmitting data into the cloud for real-time use. The programming allowed the team to identify and mitigate disruption to manufacturing operations.

Fifty-two teams participated in 24toCode, with more than 200 participants from every region of the world, including innovators from Australia, Chile, China, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Poland and the United Kingdom.

This diverse set of participants ranged from high school and college students to experienced professionals and from a variety of backgrounds. Engineers, developers, software engineers and students engaged with Rockwell Automation subject matter experts over the two-day event to solve real-world problems relating to OT/IT convergence, sustainability, manufacturing scheduling, system compatibility and migration.

Rockwell Automation’s 24toCode first launched in 2019 in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, with a subsequent event in Milwaukee. This year’s virtual format allowed for a global participant base.

As the world of connected devices continues to boom, Rockwell Automation remains committed to working with talented individuals through innovative events like 24toCode to further expand what is possible and to make the world more productive and more sustainable.

About Rockwell Automation

Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE: ROK), is a global leader in industrial automation and digital transformation. We connect the imaginations of people with the potential of technology to expand what is humanly possible, making the world more productive and more sustainable. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Rockwell Automation employs approximately 23,000 problem solvers dedicated to our customers in more than 100 countries. To learn more about how we are bringing The Connected Enterprise to life across industrial enterprises, visit www.rockwellautomation.com.