Teams of people from the Royal Navy, British Army, Royal Air Force, Reserves and Civil Service are working together to create digital products that could support MOD-wide opportunities.
The teams are competing in the first Defence Hackathon, which is enabled by Astra and is being delivered by Appivate, Digital Academy and Navy Digital. As well as producing potential products that could support things like tackling sustainability or future-proofing physical security, the Hackathon helps identify hidden talents.
All those taking part have coding abilities but more than half of the competitors do not work in digital professions. To help enhance their skills, they’ve been taking part in coaching and mentoring workshops led by Industry Partners. They’ll then spend 48 hours in their cross-functional teams, developing and finalising a digital product that they can pitch to the judging panel.
The winners will hopefully see their prototype developed into a final product that can be implemented across Defence. They’ll also be given the opportunity to extend their skills further within their respective Service. The judges will be looking at the desirability, viability, business value, technical feasibility and professionalism of the product. The top two teams will then compete in the final pitch to a senior panel led by the Chief of the Air Staff.
