Carlton & United Breweries and AB InBev are pleased to announce the winners from the first ever Hack the World event held in Melbourne. The event attracted 60 of Melbourne’s brightest data scientists, software developers, innovators and engineers to create solutions for real world problems.

Teams were tasked to solve a series of problems, with just 36 hours to come up with a solution and mentoring from tech companies Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Aruba, to help leverage new technologies and make their ideas a reality. Three winning ideas emerged from the weekend:

Grand Prize – Beer Baron
An AR app, which interacts with your beer at the bar. The brand of your beer will create unique interactions with your beer bottle using AR technology, which you can record and send to your mates.

Best Consumer solution – PartyBesty
The app that tracks exactly how much alcohol you’re drinking during the night. By simply taking a picture of your drink label or barcode, the app uses AI to identify what you’re drinking and how much alcohol is in it.  The app also uses chatbot technology, which will call you to check-in, and if you need to call it a night, the app can call an Uber or your mates.

Best Customer solution – Txttobeer
The ultimate convenience tool in the bar, which combines the best of chatbot technology, allowing you to order drinks via text message and have it delivered to your table.

On the winners, AB InBev’s VP of Solutions for Asia Pacific South, Ken Cousins, said he was impressed by the talent and ideas he saw over the weekend.

“Over our Hack the World weekend, teams developed innovative prototypes to solve real world problems, we’re proud to have created this opportunity for future technology leaders to come together and compete.”

“Leveraging new technology like AR, chatbots is the way of the future, it’s an exciting space to be in, and these were exciting people to work with.” Mr Cousins said.

The winning team, Beer Baron received a prize of $10,000 to develop their app and an AWS device for every team member. While PartyBesty and Txttobeer won $5,000 of AWS credit.

Hack the World is AB InBev’s innovation platform and global community through which it commits to work with start-ups, innovators, entrepreneurs and students, building solutions to bring people together for a better world.