Bangalore International Airport Announces Winners Of BIAL Genie Hackathon In Collaboration With Microsoft

Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) — operator of Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (BLR Airport) today announced winners of the ‘BIAL Genie Hackathon’ in collaboration with Microsoft. Over 11, 500 teams comprising developers and data scientists from across India participated in this challenge to design innovative solutions using Microsoft Azure services. The hackathon sought to unearth new innovations and solutions that will improve the end-to-end passenger experience at BLR Airport.

Team Reboot Rebels emerged the grand winners of the hackathon with their innovative application ‘Fly Ezy’ winning INR 1.5 lacs as cash reward. The 4-member Reboot Rebels team suggested potential solutions to support the passenger journey from commuting to the airport, internal navigation at the airport, facilitating access to shopping offers as well as alerts for passenger flights to enhance the overall passenger experience.

Other key highlights of Team Reboot Rebels included features like Internal Navigation which can be integrated into the airport map and shows dynamic movement on the map with real-time insights for passengers using the app. The application was designed to give passengers an easy, efficient, secure, and memorable travel experience. Another useful feature was a Blockchain wallet which allows passengers to be rewarded with coins in their wallet which can later be redeemed to get discount coupons at stores in and around the airport.

Team Code Blooded were declared the runner up with their AI based solution called “AIR DASH” which included various usage of Azure services for AR based easy navigation through Azure Maps, a Personalized Marketplace developed through Azure Machine Learning Studio including smooth onboarding for ecosystem partners. They won a cash reward of INR 1 lakh.

The BIAL Genie Hackathon took place between October 2021 to February 2022 to drive technology-led innovation through the development of an app using Azure. Out of 107 shortlisted ideas, 29 prototypes were submitted with a final shortlist of 7 for the finale. The shortlisted teams were provided Azure credits, technical resources, and mentoring sessions by Microsoft subject matter experts (SMEs).

Commenting on this, George Fanthome, Chief Information Officer, BIAL, said, “I would like to thank all participants of the hackathon for the overwhelming response and congratulate the winning teams. This brought together some of the brightest minds in the tech space and has enabled them to create solutions that would have an impact in enhancing customer experience at BLR Airport, by leveraging the next generation of digital technologies. We look forward to seeing the transformative ideas develop into practical actions that will help us realise the vision of a digitalised and smart airport.”

Shivir Chordia, Azure Business Group Lead, Microsoft India, said, “As a cloud service company, Microsoft has always been supporting developers all over the world to create solutions which help businesses and organizations transform. We received some very interesting and transformative ideas for the BIAL Genie Hackathon, and I would like to congratulate the winning teams and all the hackathon participants for their efforts.”

About BIAL

Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (BLR Airport), named after the founder of the City – Hiriya Kempegowda – has the unique distinction of being the first Greenfield Airport in India, established on a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. This heralded a revolution in Indian aviation, as more airports in the Country were privatised, thereafter. BLR Airport commenced operations on May 24, 2008 – 33 months from the start of construction. The expansion of the Terminal was completed in 2014 to cater to the steady, unprecedented growth in passenger volumes. Having served 10 million passengers in 2008, BLR Airport witnessed phenomenal growth during the subsequent years, becoming the fastest growing airport in the world in 2018. As the busiest Airport in South India and the third largest in the Country, BLR Airport welcomed 33.3 million passengers in FY 2018-19.