The contest officially started last week, but there’s plenty of time to sign up. You don’t have to be an expert or have any code built already to enter – the winners will be selected at random, not by judges. Winners will receive more than just a robot, according to IBM: The giveaway comes courtesy of IBM’s Code and Response, a new initiative this year from the company that aims to empower developers with the resources and support to implement original technology-based solutions to humanity’s open problems. Inspiring developers who, otherwise, might not have access to IBM’s resources and mentors is a strategy that’s already paying off for the company. TNW spoke to IBM Code and Response CTO Daniel Krook to ask why IBM was giving away drones for the second year in a row. He told us: One of last year’s hackathon winners, Pedro Cruz, developed his drone-based disaster relief tech after experiencing the devastation of Puerto Rico by hurricanes Irma and Maria. Cruz told TNW his inspiration for his project, which uses computer vision and drones to look for survivors and pattern recognition to help them get the specific kind of help they need, came from his experience in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Cruz confirmed his grandmother was okay using his drone and, eventually, was inspired to develop a more robust AI-based drone solution to scouting for survivors of disasters with IBM. He’s now an employee of the company who continues to develop these solutions in the hopes of mitigating the effects of natural disasters. If you’re interested in getting involved, head over to IBM’s contest page where you’ll sign up for your free IBM cloud account and submit your entry to win a DJI Tello drone. The contest is open to developers in the US, Canada, Spain, and the UK.
