Regional App Developers and Innovators Are Invited to Hack the Factory

7 March 2017
Content from a Premium Partner
GE Africa (Lagos)

There are parenting hacks, Arabic- and English-language learning hacks, email management hacks, and even sleep hacks. Now, there's GE Brilliant Hacks. This global open innovation challenge is looking for new ways that digital Industrial Internet of Things solutions can be used to improve manufacturing processes.

The challenge asks submitters to build apps, product extensions, or data visualizations that give managers of manufacturing plants new ways to predict, adapt, and react to information in ways that improve efficiency.

Software and app developers, engineers and other computer and manufacturing experts from across the region are invited to submit their best app, extension, or data visualization ideas to solve manufacturing problems. The solution must use the GE Brilliant Manufacturing Suite of APIs. The deadline for the Phase 1 "Idea Round" is March 21.

Submissions to Phase 1 should include a written description of how the software application idea would provide deeper insights into a manufacturing process, and how it would deliver benefits to manufacturing plant employees or operators. It also should explain how it would use at least one API from at least one of the GE Brilliant Manufacturing Products: Efficiency Analyzer (EA), Work in Process (WIP) Manager, or Enterprise Plant Insights (EPI/PPO).

The GE Brilliant Manufacturing Suite is powered by GE's Predix platform, the first operating system developed for industry. The Suite includes software applications that provide deep operational insights and real-time visibility to help plant operators make better decisions. Coders can find out more about Predix on www.predix.io.

The top 30 ideas will move on to the "Build Round." This round provides access to a hackathon-only Predix environment to build the winning ideas into functioning solutions. Submissions for the Build Round will be accepted between March 27 and May 8 and will require a working software application running on GE's Predix Platform and using at least one of the three APIs.

A total of US$50,000 in prizes will be awarded to winners in six categories, but the money is just one benefit of being a winner. For example, the Grand Prize winner – who receives US$20,000 – will also get a free pass to the Predix Transform Developer Conference plus US$1,000 in travel allowances, a teleconference with Brilliant Manufacturing development staff to discuss the winning application and the future of cloud-based manufacturing applications, and one Predix development seat subscription for a year.

GE has been working with customers and partners across the region for more than 80 years, and is supporting region-wide innovation through localized research, innovation challenges, research centers and 'GE Garages.'

This article first appeared on GE Hewar. 

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