From the Next Web:
IBM‘s Developer Drone Drop 2019 contest is officially underway. Now through June 16 the company will give away 1,500 drones to developers who enter. Why is IBM giving away free drones? It hopes you’ll use them to deliver AI-powered solutions to the problems caused by natural disasters.
The contest officially started last week, but there’s plenty of time to sign up. You don’t have to be an expert or have any code built already to enter – the winners will be selected at random, not by judges. Winners will receive more than just a robot, according to IBM:
The DJI Tello drone is more than just a cool prize. We’ll give you code patterns to unlock its potential, and introduce you to new skills around visual recognition, AI and machine learning.
The giveaway comes courtesy of IBM‘s Code and Response, a new initiative this year from the company that aims to empower developers with the resources and support to implement original technology-based solutions to humanity’s open problems. Inspiring developers who, otherwise, might not have access to IBM‘s resources and mentors is a strategy that’s already paying off for the company.
TNW spoke to IBM Code and Response CTO Daniel Krook to ask why IBM was giving away drones for the second year in a row. He told us:
Who doesn’t like free drones? It’s about inspiring people … it’s not just altruism on IBM‘s part, we believe this technology can help humanity and IBM is a part of humanity.
One of last year’s hackathon winners, Pedro Cruz, developed his drone-based disaster relief tech after experiencing the devastation of Puerto Rico by hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Comments
@Greg Dronsky
read again
from
https://developer.ibm.com/blogs/win-a-drone-program-a-drone-change-...
"The good news doesn’t stop there. I’m excited to announce this year’s IBM Developer Drone Giveaway has expanded eligibility to residents of the UK and Spain, as well as the United States, and Canada
The 2019 IBM Drone Drop is restricted to residents of the United States and Canada, except in Quebec.
"We’ll give you code patterns to unlock its potential"...huh! You mean the Chinese DJI drones (banned by US military) have "hidden" capabilities?
"the winners will be selected at random, not by judges.
randon stays for what ?
IBM owns DJI ?
Are you sure IBM is not violating licences by DJI, contractual agreements with DJI,
buying DJI drones as corporate buyer for its own use
than donating the same drones to random parties, not covered by licences by DJI
Could you call DJI to learn if random parties are licenced to get DJI drones donated for free, from a third party
under present state of trade war between US and China ?