BattleHack 2015

Interviews with technologists, business professionals, startupers, scientists, researchers and eHealth stakeholders

Interviews Abrupt

Shock, happiness, ecstasy, pure adrenaline and tiredness – those were the feelings moments after the announcement of the coveted victory… Shai Mishali, the global winner of BattleHack Competition Finals (https://2014.battlehack.org) in November 2014 (along with Pavel Kaminsky, as representatives of vibrant start-up city Tel Aviv, where they had won in the local competition), remembers the hot atmosphere, the VIP treatment and the unique experience of holding the Axe of Victory at San Jose, CA. He insists that he will take part again in the competition and urges every serious developer to join. Find him on Twitter under twitter.com/freak4pc. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.


TTC #175  The winner of the BattleHack 2014 Axe speaks out, Shai Mishali

Dr. Aristotelis Chatziioannou, Electrical & Computer Engineer, Dr. Lefteris Pilalis, Biochemist and Dr. Ioannis Valavanis, Computer Engineer, all with a degree in Bioinformatics present http://e-nios.com, a spin-off they created from the National Hellenic Research Foundation. They talk about the solutions e-nios offers for analysing and interpreting data derived from modern high throughput Genomics technologies and the opportunities that open up for them in the future. They mention what it means to be a researcher and a startup founder; what kind of support they have received through mentoring and funding; whether they would prefer to be in some other country outside Greece and  how they see their startup growing. They touch on the subject of data ethics and the future of medicine and patient care due to supporting technologies like theirs. Follow them on http://twitter.com/e_nios or sign up on their newsletter http://eepurl.com/bn1c8j. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.


TTC #176 Analysing the Genome, e-nios

John Lunn, the main evangelist for the BattleHack series of events, has become a sort of legend. The great marketing efforts of Braintree_dev has contributed to this but also, his years of expertise in development and the genuine admiration of the developers that attend the event in every city. During the Athens event, held in May of 2015, John told us what BattleHack aims to achieve; whether PayPal is looking to hire developers through the event and whether it has been successful all these years. Of course we did ask him about PayPal spinning off eBay and what they’re planning with their public offering.  He talks about mobile payments and developers disrupting the Banking system with all these new fintech startups. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech talks Central.


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TTC #177 It’s All About the Code. BattleHack’s John Lunn

Fotos Georgiadis and his team (Dimitris Zorbas, Giannis Hatziioannidis, Javie Gonel) tried to find a viable solution, during BattleHack 2015 in Athens, to a very big problem, nowadays in Europe, mainly in Greece and Spain, but in other countries as well: the soaring unemployment amongst young people. Yet, many of them play and excel in trivia games. What if there was a mobile app that could match their skills and interests to prospective employees and vacant positions? Their idea proved to be bright enough to secure the 2nd place in the competition for them! Not bad. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/gfotos. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.


TTC #178 Matching Candidates to Vacant Positions, QuizJob. Fotos Georgiadis

As the title suggests it’s all about taking care of the Developer Community, PayPal and Braintree have created, and Alberto Lopez Martin sure has the way to get everyone motivated. A very lively Spaniard, he himself is an experienced developer and understands the pains and gains. He talks about BattleHack, as a member of the team for the past year; what it strives to accomplish and which are the best apps he has seen being created up to now. He looks forward to joining the next BattleHack in Tokyo and honestly who wouldn’t be… Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/albertuslm. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.


TTC #179 Getting Developers Pumped on Code. Alberto Lopez Martin

Manolis Nikiforakis and his team (Dimitris Karagiannis and Thanasis Daglis) set out to create a multiplayer reactive game, using mostly Arduinos and Particle (Spark) Cores, where the losers’ money would automatically be donated to charity! Well, that was the main idea, but -unfortunately- time was not enough for them to fully implement it during the 24-hour duration of BattleHack. Nevertheless, Manolis (a seasoned researcher and developer with 12+ years of experience), confessed to us that he loves taking part in hackathons… just for the fun of it. And, surely enough, we also talked a lot about the opportunities arising all the time, as technology evolves, for example in the relatively new field of IoT.  Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.


TTC #181 Being Part of BattleHack for the Fun of It! Manolis Nikiforakis

PhotOral is the first intra-oral blue light wellness device, suitable for controlling your mouth’s microbiome. Stamatis Astra, CEO at PhotOral, life science startup based in Boston, explains how the product stemmed from biomedical research conducted within the Forsyth Institute; and how they plan to have it in the market by the end of 2016. He also talks about product development costs, investor backup, dental studies and what led them in the development of a new product, this time for pet hygiene. Pantelis Angelidis, founder and president of Vidavo, an mHealth company based in Greece, explains their incentives behind their investment in PhotOral and how they’re contributing to the company’s growth with expertise knowledge derived from their own specialisation in the eHealth domain. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.


TTC #262 Bringing Oral Hygiene A Step Further Into The Future

As a Lord of the Rings fan... Netbeast fits the“One platform to control them all” description, meaning that Netbeast will be able to control all your smart and connected devices through one app. Co-founders Jon Senra Dearle, CEO & Jesus Dario Rivera, CTO at Netbeast share their story and the startup’s journey up to now. You will listen to what IoT challenges they are tackling and a brief concern about privacy and security. One of the highlights of the interview is when they explain how one can actually create an ideal wake up morning call thanks to Netbeast and smart devices. They discuss the similarities, the differences and the progress of the startup ecosystems in Spain and Germany. Interviewed by Sakis Triantafyllakis for Tech Talks Central.


TTC #264 A Javascript Framework For All Your Smart Devices

Dr. Michail Bletsas, Research Scientist & the Director of Computing at MIT’s Media Lab was one of the founding members of the ‘One Laptop Per Child’ initiative, in 2005. He is a strong proponent of Connectivity, as he considers it is as necessary as our water supply; it provides the basis for communication, which he firmly believes distinguishes us humans from other complex species on this planet; it acted as the primary catalyst to help us “invent” social networking, law, religion, democracy and currency. He talks about the emerging, telephony and mobile, convergence; the EU and USA research environments versus that of China’s, and how the latter’s lack of institutions may prove critical in the failure or success equation.  Finally, he discusses the OLPC legacy, as the result of an elaborate demo, conducted by MIT, ever. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.

TTC #265  Connectivity Is Important As Water

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