Port of Rotterdam Hosts “Hackathon” Event

The Port of Rotterdam recently finished hosting this year’s 2016 World Port Hackathon event, focused on creating the port of the future.

Over a 24 hour period, 100 hackers from around the world came together to help co-create ideas focused on pushing the industry forward. For many of the hackers, this was the first time they had been involved with the shipping and container industry. With a growing emphasis on the use of technology and IT in the industry, these hackers came together to offer their fresh ideas and insight and competed with one-another for the chance at taking home first prize.

The winning idea was a system to detect fraud at the border, by means of a method which will allow customs officials to detect changes to the contents of a container. As one of the team members explained: “We would like to solve this problem by using digital passports with which each container will be equipped.”

Another top winner was a system developed sort of like Airbnb for available berths in the port, thus allowing for a more efficient use of vacant berths. A digital marketplace will allow terminals to indicate which berths are not currently being used and may be temporarily rented out to other ships. “Just imagine Airbnb, but with berths rather than homes, and with ships rather than tourists,” a team member explained.

Peter de Graaf, CIO Portbase and one of the judges at the event said: “I think it’s smart if you look at the development of the Internet of Things, everything gets connected with each other. I think you have no choice but to work with making the harbor more smart. Everything’s becoming digital and it’s a main objective, and I think more important than making it smart is to make it more effective and efficient.”