From 18 to 19 October, it was that time again: As part of the second ifm Hackathon at THE SUMMIT in Siegen, hacking, coding and programming took place for 24 hours. Six talented teams – a total of 33 participants – worked passionately on innovative and creative solutions. The atmosphere was electrifying, and the ideas were bubbling over. Everyone was there with full enthusiasm.

This year, everything revolved around data science, artificial intelligence and gaming. The teams were tasked with analysing telemetry data from five races they had already run, driving a virtual race track themselves and developing a race strategy based on the data collected. The results and the developed race strategy were presented in a final presentation to a jury of experts. This year's jury consisted of: Sven Schuhen (Head of Technical Management, ifm services gmbh), Matthias Klemm (Manager Planning & Forecasting, ifm statmath gmbh), Joachim Theusner (Managing Director, ifm solutions gmbh), Bastian Schmick (Director Interoperability, ifm software gmbh) and Felix Grab (Director Technical Management Procurement & SCX, ifm business solutions gmbh).

The tasks in detail

Telemetry data analysis: Participants analyzed telemetry data from five races to develop basic information about the race, the racetrack, and driving behavior. This included visualizing the position data to map the racetrack and creating an elevation profile, as well as conducting a descriptive analysis of the quality of the data.

Virtual race track: The participants drove a virtual race track themselves and collected data to make a prediction for the upcoming race. They determined the track length, the first lap time and the estimated lap time of the driver.
Race strategy: Based on the data collected, the participants developed a race strategy. This included calculating total driving time, number of pit stops, factors influencing lap times and simulating different strategies for fuel and tyres.

Presentation: The participants presented their results and the developed race strategy in front of a jury of experts. For the presentations, the teams had no more than 15 minutes to demonstrate the approach, the results and ultimately the group spirit – because here it was again shown that the best teams were those where real teamwork was also very important.
Results and winners

Particularly impressive was the diversity and creative approach of the teams in solving the task at hand. However, one team in particular stood out: Team 5Wheels was able to look forward to 2,500 EUR at the award ceremony. The organizers at ifm are already looking forward to the next hackathon and are excited to see what innovative ideas will emerge and be "hacked out" there.