Leading up to the Asset Performance 4.0 hybrid Conference and Exhibition, BEMAS, the Belgian Maintenance Association, is organising a hackathon. The purpose of a hackathon is to have an asset owner define a challenge in operations or maintenance. Interested individuals or solution providers then try to formulate a solution using digital tools, such as predictive analytics, AI, IoT… 

This year’s hackathon challenge is provided by ÆVO, a Dutch company specialising in the maintenance and renovation of bridges, locks and tunnels. “The infrastructure we maintain is almost always critical. The smallest defect can have gigantic consequences for road users or shipping.” says director Corné van Dravik. 

The service company is prospering, not only because of their fast service in case of corrective interventions, but especially because of their sophisticated preventive maintenance management, which ensures less critical defects. ÆVO is now also looking for ways to trace and even predict defects at an early stage. And in this transition to predictive maintenance, a hackathon is the ideal way to explore the possibilities. “Initially, we hope that the participants will indeed find patterns that can be used to predict anomalies. Ideally, they will be able to automate the analysis and develop a concept that can be applied to several locks and perhaps even bridges and tunnels. The aim is to further develop the result into a system that can not only predict, but also give an indication of the problem at hand. Only then will we have the state-of-the-art solution of which we dream and with which we can offer our customers maximum added value.” concludes Corné van Dravik.

Interested individuals and companies can explore the problem by watching the webinar with Corné van Dravik, who explains the functioning of the company and the overall problem. In a second recording, Sjoerd Van Agtmael, the System Architect behind this automation project, dives deeper into the technical side and explains how to interpret the available data.

All information is compiled on the Asset Performance 4.0 website, where candidates can also register. Participants are added to the interactive hackathon platform, where all data is available for download. ÆVO will analyse the submitted proposals and select the finalists, who can present their solution during the Asset Performance 4.0 conference on Thursday 28 October. 

Those who want to watch the hackathon problem presentation by ÆVO and the presentations by the finalists - online or in Antwerp-, can already register online or in Antwerp via assetperformance.eu/2021