9 May 2019

Developers, engineers, building owners, tech start-ups, and coders are needed to join a central London Hackathon that will bring experts together to develop new, commercially viable solutions that will radically change the face of fire safety within buildings in the UK and around the world.

Hosted by the Association for Project Safety (APS), the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), and Hack_Construct, the free-to-attend, two-day Hackathon will take place at the IET London: Savoy Place on Thursday 23rd, and Friday 24th May 2019 and will build on an initial concept day, held last November.

Commercially viable solutions

Bobby Chakravarthy on behalf of the APS, said: "Our collaboration is looking for solutions to fire safety that can be developed commercially. The IET, the APS, and Hack_Construct believe that together we can speed up the pace of change to deliver radically safer buildings." 

Bobby Chakravarthy adds, "We want to harness a powerful combination of gaming and new technology with the traditional engineering and safety skills in the construction. Our aim is to find new tools to ensure fire safety is built in right from the design and development stage."

Fire safety design

Rick Hartwig, Built Environment Lead at the IET, said: "Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017, and subsequent recommendations by Dame Judith Hackitt in her 'Building a Safer Future' report, the construction industry is now looking to offer potential solutions to improve fire safety design and regulations."

Rick Hartwig adds, "Tech skills, new technology, and traditional engineering know-how are set to revolutionize the traditional world of fire safety within buildings by tapping into new technology. We want to bring all these industry experts together to come up with new proposals which can be taken forward for further development to radically improve fire safety which could save lives."