Last month, the results for the Smart City App Challenge “Hackathon” in Halifax were announced, and the successful teams featured several Dal alumni.

The champion, Sol-Ops, included alumnus Mehran Zamani (BEng’09). The two teams tied for runner-up included Eric Noel (BEng’11), Majd Hussini (BEng’09), Abidalrahman Moh’d (PhD (Engineering Mathematics)’13), and Hatem Nassrat (MACSc’09).

Innovacorp and ShiftKey Labs — the Dal-hosted information and communications technology sandbox — set the stage for the first-ever Halifax Smart City App Challenge this fall.

Kicking off with a “Hackathon” event in late September, 40 participants across 10 teams were challenged to develop a new app to benefit participants in Halifax’s Solar City program, which offers homeowners and businesses in Halifax with solar energy options.

“We’ve been seeing a tremendous amount of talent and drive in our local IT start-up community . . .” said alumnus Stephen Duff (BSc’79, MBA’82), Innovacorp’s president and CEO.

Read more in “Helpful Hacking” on dal.ca.