Data-Driven App Wins Sabre Hackathon
by Michele McDonald /An application called TripMaker took the top prize in Sabre Dev Studio’s #ReinventTravel Hackathon, a 24-hour competition in which 16 teams of developers created new apps from fresh code.
During the event, held Aug. 1-2 at Sabre headquarters in Southlake, Texas, and online, developers were given access to the new Sabre Dev Studio API platform. They also used APIs from other sources, including Facebook and Twitter, to create their applications.
TripMaker is a data-driven trip-planning service that allows travelers to create a profile and then uses their profile information to offer intelligent trip suggestions based on available data, rather than flooding them with random trip possibilities.
In addition to winning the grand prize – $5,000 in cash and a $10,000 credit for use of Sabre APIs – the TripMaker team took top honors in the “Mine Your own Business” challenge.
More innovation
Hackathon winners in other categories included:
• Kick Travel, a micro-funding app that allows travelers who can’t afford their trips to post their stories and seek donations – winner of the “Social Swagger” category.
• BucketList, an app that which uses four different APIs to help users plan a once-in-a-lifetime trip at an affordable cost – winner of the “API Alchemist” challenge.
• Erbase, a concept application that would allow travelers to connect with users who need to send items around the world (the travelers take the items with them and deliver them to the recipients.) – winner of the “Travel in a Non-Travel World” challenge.