Some things happen just by chance or good fortune.
NB: This is an analysis from Dylan Macalinao, a developer who participated in the Reinvent Travel hackathon.
Our team composed of four students – myself (15), Ian (18), Adil (16), and Dakota (20).
Ian, Adil and I met Dakota during a kickoff event for the North Texas App Challenge. Dakota expressed to us his idea for a travel planning website which he then hoped to create for the Sabre Developer hackathon.
In the week leading up to the hackathon, we discussed different ideas that we hoped would push the boundaries of the travel industry; thus, our team and TripBlaze (see NB below), was born.
As in any idea targeted to consumers, we first had to consider the desires of our market.
Through research, we discovered the high demand for simplicity in travel planning websites. Most popular trip planners are cluttered and without the personalized feel that users crave.
Our goal with TripBlaze was to make an application that is easy to use as well as comfortable to every traveler’s needs.
We also compared the online travel services currently used to other types of content. For example, online shopping offers an experience specific to the user.
Amazon compares users with similar shopping history in order to display items that are frequently bought together, or what customers who viewed a particular item ended up buying, etc.
This kind of personalization maximizes the user experience.
Thus, through our app TripBlaze, we created a "smart”" algorithm that helps users get the most out of their trip by suggesting popular routes from previous experiences.
In the coding of our app, we used a combination of Sabre, Google, Tripomatic and SITA developer APIs.
Through combining different third party APIs, alongside Sabre’s own, we were able to open the door to myriad applications.
We then used Angular to communicate with the resulting JSON backend in order to create a powerful web application.
In between writing lines and lines of code, we enjoyed the Sabre environment (for lunch, food trucks came by offering pulled pork grilled cheeses and boba tea!).
Using Picasso Tiles scavenged from other groups, Adil and I built massive towers to hold our cans of caffeinated drinks. With another group, we had a "trick shot" competition involving the ball and rope sets left in the office lobby.
By the twelfth hour of the hackathon, we were exhausted. We did everything we could to stay awake – chugging cans of Red Bull, pouring boxes of Nerds into our bodies; we even took a break to jump around in the bounce house, hardly keeping our balance while dueling in rounds of "Ninja".
Finally, at 2am, we surrendered to our sleep-deprived minds and decided to take a quick power nap at Dakota’s house.
Finally the clock read "24:00" which signaled the end of coding.
The four of us walked to the front of the room, ready to show the judges what we had accomplished. One hour later, the awards ceremony began.
Everyone in the room waited in anticipation for the winner to be revealed.
"And the winner is… TripBlaze!"
A brilliant end to an industrious 24 hours.
Hackathons are essential for communication with the developer community. By releasing flexible APIs, developers are better equipped with the means to improve user experience.
They also provide a source of community in which developers are able to formulate and exchange ideas that revolutionize industries.
In the near future, we hope to communicate with Sabre about utilizing the Dev Studio license. After talking with my team, we believe there is a possibility of taking the license and using it to develop a tech startup.
More to come on that!
NB: This is an analysis from Dylan Macalinao, a developer who participated in the Reinvent Travel hackathon.
NB2: The original name for the hack was changed to TripBlaze after the event for legal reasons.