Seattle - February 2020

The 14th edition of IATA AIR Hackathon took place at Microsoft HQ in Seattle, USA. A total of 21 teams worked during 28 hours nonstop in order to build solutions to enhance booking experience for passengers travelling with mobility aids using NDC APIs and/or tracking of mobility aids (wheelchairs).

APIs/Sources available at the event

IATA NDC, Microsoft, Medical Travel Companions, LinkedIn, Air France/KLM, FlightAware, Seattle Airport, Expedia Group and SITA

Sponsors

Host Organization: Microsoft

Host Airlines: Delta Air Lines, Air France/KLM and Virgin Atlantic

Gold Sponsors: IBS Software, TIBCO Software, Boeing and Expedia Group

Supporting Organizations: Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, HackAcess Dublin, EqualWeb Digital Accessibility

Best Booking Solution (Corporate Prize)

Team Name: AccessKey (https://britishairways.com)

Challenge: Booking

APIs/Data source used: IATA NDC

Project Description: An independent stand-alone service that allows customers to create a personal profile of their assistance needs, within a unique access key.
Once a customer has their key, they simply enter it when booking their trip with a participating airline of travel agent to ensure their requirements are added to the booking.
Changing or updating the customer’s assistance requirements via their account will automatically update any bookings they have associated to their AccessKey.

Team Members: John-Paul Henry, Harry Williams, Simon Kisner, John Casey

Best Booking Solution (Corporate Prize) - AccessKey

Best Wheelchair Tracking Solution (Corporate Prize)

Team Name: Live Baby Live (https://www.livebabylive.org/)

Challenge: Tracking

APIs/Data source used: LinkedIn, SITA, Expedia Group, Microsoft, IATA NDC, FlightAware, AF/KLM, SEA Airport and Medical Travel Companion

Technology used: Azure Maps, Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform, TONE, Optio3, Microsoft PowerApps, Live Baby Live NeXt Gen Mobility Devices Service

Project Description: The Live Baby Live team worked on two different use cases:

  • Check-in of passenger and his/her mobility aid
  • Tracking of mobility aid
Live Baby Live Next Gen Mobility Services allow the mobility device to 'check itself in' at any transportation terminal or gate. These mobility services provide the transportation provider with all the required specifications about the device including weight, battery type, etc as well as a proprietary Live Baby Live 'Health Check' and 'Health Transcript'.

  • The Health Check will alert the transportation provider to any existing damage to the device.
  • The Health Transcript will provide the transportation provider with the health history of the device, prior damage, repairs and upcoming maintenance issues.
The combination of Microsoft's Azure Maps, Connected Vehicle Platform and the Live Baby Live Mobility Service unlocks the power of GPS, Mapping, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain and much more.

The open source Live Baby Live solution integrates into existing transportation provider's mobile apps, client applications, web applications and back end systems.

The frictionless check-in solution connects the transportation providers information, passenger information and the mobility device information including a health check and health transcript of the device.

The transportation provider can view all mobility devices currently in their transportation chain, current status of each item, identify high risk items, identify passengers in need of greater assistance and much more. All the geospatial data is surfaced through interior and exterior mapping capabilities and real-time tracking.

Team Members: David Gemoll, Phil Eng, Timothy Eng, Katia Gilligan, Elianna Pelton, Alicia Edelman Pelton and Dasani Madipalli

Best Wheelchair Tracking Solution (Corporate Prize) - Live Baby Live

Best Booking Experience (Non-Corporate Prize)

Team Name: Wheel2wing by FLYLA (https://www.flyla.com/)

Challenges: Booking and tracking

APIs/Data source used: IATA NDC and SITA

Project Description: Julia is a frequent traveler and loves to be independent in her flight search. She is a wheelchair user due to spinal cord injury in 2015. Wheel2wing offers a smooth process to book your flight as a wheelchair user and to provide all necessary information to your chosen airline. Julia is visiting her friend Stella in New York City. Before booking her flight via Google Flights she downloaded the Wheel2wing Google Chrome extension.
She created a Wheel2wing profile and provided all important information regarding her disability, her equipment as well as her special needs. After booking her Delta flight from Seattle to NYC the information is automatically forwarded to the airline. She is all set for her flight and all of her provided data is saved in her profile for future bookings.
Before Julia arrives at the Seattle Tacoma Airport on her desired day of travel, Boris, who is managing all special assistance employees, has a closer look at all people who require assistance on that day. He used his Wheel2wing dashboard to oversee all passengers departing or arriving on that day. He has access to all their personal information and provided data and files. He assigns Julia to his team member Luis who will be taking care of her on that day. Boris can follow Julia's progress in his dashboard.
Luis, who is assigned to take care if Julia on that day, gets notified and is provided with all relevant pickup and flight information. He also has access to the information Julia provided through the Wheel2wing extension. Julia arrived at the airport and no questions about her disability are asked. She will be safely brought to her seat on the aircraft.

Team Members: Philipp Skroblin, Raphael Jasjukaitis, Frederic Lapatschek, Jose Martos and Fabian Hoehne

Best Booking Experience (Non-Corporate Prize) - Wheel2wing by FLYLA

Best Tracking Solution (Non-Corporate Prize)

Team Name: WatchMyWheels

Challenge: Tracking

APIs/Data source used: mywakes, twilio, stripe

Project Description: The first peace of mind rental service for travelers.

WatchMyWheels provide GPS tracking, updates, and management for mobility aids. We rent GPS trackers and provide custom QR codes for easy contact with your handler, in order to decrease incidents of damage and loss of wheelchairs.

Team Members: Kit Brennan and Mark Corbett

Best Tracking Solution (Non-Corporate Prize) - WatchMyWheels

Special Recognition (Non-Corporate Prize)

Team Name: Wheeltrack

Challenge: Tracking

Project Description: An app that eases the travel experience for people with reduced mobility by providing real time information of the location and integrity of their mobility device. We believe that by helping both guests and ground staff be more informed we can provide peace of mind and increase customer loyalty.

Team Members: Diana Wang, Daidre Gothard, Ryan Huse, Chi Nguyen, Chickee Fuerman and Gabriela Oliveira

Special Recognition (Non-Corporate Prize) - Wheeltrack