AECO Digital accelerates prototypes from hackathons into global business

Digitalization is transforming the construction business and providing new global opportunities. If Finnish companies don’t keep up with the pace of digitalization, innovations and production will move abroad and Finland will become merely a consumer of smart construction components and services.

To tackle this challenge, Finland’s first AEC (Architecture, Engineering, Construction) Hackathon was organized in November 2015. Hackathons are 1-2 day intensive sessions, where multi-skilled teams develop new digital prototypes to solve specific problems. In hackathons groundbreaking ideas are born extremely quickly and affordably. Teams, on the other hand, rarely have capabilities or necessary connections for turning their prototypes into global business.

Prominent ideas further developed with potential clients

AECO Digital accelerator is now taking forward some of the most prominent ideas born in the November Hackathon and working together with two teams – Qualia Interactive and VisuaLynk. Qualia Interactive (on the photo) developed a virtual reality application for kitchen renovations where one can see and compare how different materials would look like. VisuaLynk is a visual user interface for holistic information management in facilities management.

These ideas are now being further developed together with potential clients and stakeholders towards scalable international business. The process is facilitated by Aalto University’s SimLab that has extensive experience in supporting such co-development.

- If this experiment is successful, then the idea is to build a global network of AECO Digital accelerators that work closely with the global mentor communities of AEC Hackathons. We welcome companies in the construction business to join the ecosystem, says Teemu Lehtinen, the co-founder of AECO Digital and a doctoral student at Aalto University’s SimLab.

AECO Digital is one of the finalists in the “Teot ratkaisevat” – idea challenge of the Technology Industries of Finland Centennial Foundation. The next AEC Hackathon in Finland will be held at Sweco Finland on the weekend of June 3-5.

Follow AECO Digital on Twitter: @AECO_digital #AECO #AECHackathon

More information:
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AEC Hackathons

The Digital Disruption of Industry – research consortium aims to model the digital disruption and to strive for active measures for influencing the direction and speed of the change. We work closely with the industry through experiments like the AECO Digital.