NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
• Last weekend, Intel came together with ABP Food Group and DCU innovation Campus to host Ireland’s first ever Beef Hackathon.
• The Beefhack was an opportunity to combine the fundamentals of a traditional agricultural based industry with the emerging technology opportunities offered by the Internet of Things.
• The first place prize was awarded to the TenderScan team for their development of a handheld device which takes a series of readings to decide how tender a piece of meat is. The top prize team picked up a prize of €10,000 with prizes also being awarded to second and third placed teams.
• Also awarded was an Intel Galileo prize which went to the Bó Selecta team who developed a beef tenderness traceability app. The team received a prize of €5,000.
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Last weekend, Intel came together with ABP Food Group and DCU innovation Campus to host Ireland’s first ever Beef Hackathon – an event which brought together entrepreneurs, designers, engineers, creators, food technologists, agricultural graduates and innovators spend a weekend dedicated to developing Internet of Things (IoT) ideas to enhance the production of quality beef.
 Teams are pictured at Ireland’s first ever Beefhack |
The Beefhack was an opportunity to combine the fundamentals of a traditional agricultural based industry with the emerging technology opportunities offered by the Internet of Things. The event asked participants to consider areas including quality, business and industry, posing questions such as ‘can you devise a smart method that would allow farmers to monitor feed intake and growth rate’ and ‘How do we further enhance the shelf life of beef products’.
The event began on Friday March 20th with a number of keynote addresses from the likes of ABP Food Group and Intel which provided food for thought for the hackathon participants who then went on to pitch their creative ideas to the room with teams forming shortly after and beginning the making process on their new projects.
The making process continued on Saturday into the small hours with the culmination of the event on Sunday afternoon when teams participated in a prototype showcase where they shared for the first time their working demos with a panel of judges. At stake was total prize money of more than €20,000 which was awarded to the top 3 projects at the event as well as a special award for the best use of Intel Galileo technology.
The prototype showcase was followed by final pitches by each of the team which was a formal opportunity to address the judges and assembled audience with a 3 minute summary of their idea and prototype.
After much deliberation by the judging panel the Hackathon winners were announced as follows;
• TenderScan was named as the winning team for their development of a handheld device which takes a series of readings to decide how tender a piece of meat is. The device takes measurements to test for the amount of protein, water and acidity in any piece of meat and instantly categorises the tenderness, through the unique combination of three key sensor measurements. Software on the scanner correlates the data read by the sensors to provide a reliable measurement of the tenderness and sends this information to a cloud-based database. Using the Intel Galileo board TenderScan is a highly innovative piece of equipment that can be used across the food industry. The team picked up the top prize of €10,000 to support the continuing development of the product. Click here to see a video about the winning project.
• Second prize was awarded to the ‘Track and Trace’ team for their smart tracker that monitors and collects data of beef produce while in transit. The tracker provides real time data and shipment info ensuring that there is full traceability of the product from field to fork. The team received a prize of €5,000.
• Third prize was awarded jointly to 2 teams. The Beefcode code team developed a marketing based hack and the HayW!re team designed a smart farm safety device. The third placed teams shared a prize of €2,500
• Also awarded was an Intel Galileo prize which recognised the best use of the development board in a prototype. The award went to the Bó Selecta team who developed a beef tenderness traceability app. The team received a prize of €5,000.
Most of the winning ideas had incorporated Intel Galileo and Edison technology into their designs. As part of the event Intel provided a number of Galileo microcontroller boards and Intel Edison development platforms to participants to facilitate the various different ideas and concepts being explored.
Intel Galileo is the first in a line of Arduino-compatible development boards based on Intel architecture and is designed for the maker and education communities. The platform is easy to use for new designers and for those looking to take designs to the next level. The Galileo board and the Intel® Quark SoC X1000 by which it is powered were both designed in Ireland at the Intel campus in Leixlip, Co. Kildare.
A team of people representing Intel were on hand throughout the weekend to provide guidance and technical know-how on incorporating the Galileo board and Intel’s Philip Moynagh, Vice President of the Internet of Things Group (IoT), participated in the panel event which took place at the conclusion of the Hackathon. The panel, which was moderated by Silicon Republic co-founder Ann O’Dea, also included Paul Finnerty, CEO of ABP Food Group, Prof. Brian MacCraith, President of DCU and Dr. Nora Khaldi, Founder & CSO of Nuritas.
Speaking during the panel Philip Moynagh said, “The digital world has been completely transformed in the last decade and the physical world is now at a similar tipping point. In this next computing wave driven by the Internet of Things it will be those who can move quickly and seize opportunities fast that will benefit most from the transformation. There is no better demonstration of the opportunity of IoT than at a hardware hackathon and this one has been particularly interesting as we see the limitless possibilities at the crossover between technology and the food industry. Of course, it’s all the more exciting for us when these innovative applications are based on our very own Quark driven Galileo’s”.
Click here to watch a video about the event created by Silicon Republic.
 First prize team ‘TenderScan’ are pictured with their awards |
 Second place team ‘Track and Trace’ pictured at the Beefhack |
 Winner of the Intel Galileo prize, the team Bó Selecta, are pictured with Intel’s Pete Dice |
Further Information
About ABP Food Group
ABP Food Group is one of Europe’s leading beef processors. Today the group operates across many businesses spanning Ireland, the UK and Continental Europe and consists of 4 separate divisions; ABP Beef, ABP Proteins, ABP Renewables and ABP Pet Foods. ABP has built its success on entrepreneurship, technological investment and a deep knowledge of the sectors in which they operate. As key stakeholders in the integrity of the food supply chain ABP are are focused on ensuring the full traceability of products.
For more information: Seamus Banim, ABP Food Group: 041-6850 200 | seamus.banim@abpfoodgroup.com
About Dublin City University Innovation Campus
The new DCU innovation campus will facilitate a clustering of ‘bits’ and ‘atoms’ focused companies and provide them with physical office and prototyping/engineering space, as well as demonstration and commercialisation opportunities, co-located and working in partnership with DCU researchers. Home | Innovation Campus | DCU
About Intel
Intel is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices.
Additional information about Intel is available at:
Web – intel.ie | Twitter – @Intel_IRL | Facebook – Intel Ireland
Media contact: Sarah Sexton | sarah.sexton@intel.com | + 353 1 606 8537
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