FHICT students Bjorn Peters and Esmee Li win Hackaton in the VPRO-lab with “NOS bot”
Most people don't find it a very strange notion anymore: being helped by a chat robot at a customer service. Or a robot who poses as a celebrity on Twitter, on the basis of an algorithm and data. But also in journalism bots are slowly making their entry. In order to find out what the possibilities of data and algorithms are, the VPRO Medialab organised a hackathon for app-developers, programmers, software-developers, designers, hackers, students of Fontys and others who were interested. The assignment: design and program a working bot.
Together with editors and producers of the VPRO, the teams got working with data and algorithms. In mixed teams, they engaged in a competition to make the best working prototype of a bot in two days. Each team had to have at least one programmer. The bots were assessed by a professional jury (VPRO). They looked at how they experienced the prototype, its usability and the creativity that went into the design. The winning team was awarded the first prize "Maak je eigen robot" ("Make your own robot") by Clementoni and they got to pitch their concept at the NOS in Hilversum!
Bjorn and Esmee, we wish you good luck, as well as your fellow team members!