First Ricoh Hackathon kicks off

The first Ricoh Hackathon, as part of the 2021 China Overseas Mass Innovation and Entrepreneurship Week in Japan, was launched on June 2 in Beijing.

The competition for the first time attempts an innovative model in which foreign companies open their core technologies to support the development of Chinese companies and explore opportunities for transnational collaborative innovation in new technology fields.

Ricoh Group, the competition organizer, will open nine core technologies.

Ricoh Senior Corporate Officer Toyohito Tanaka said that it is the first time for the group to open its own technology IPs to the participating teams. Ricoh seeks cooperation with outstanding teams and talents in the fields of China's new generation of information technology, intelligent manufacturing, energy conservation and environmental protection through the competition and hopes to collaborate with Chinese entrepreneurs to innovate and create new products of value to society.

On the same day, the competition, structured with preliminary rounds, semifinals, and finals, officially opened for registration. The preliminary rounds have five sub-stations: Beijing, Suzhou•Kunshan, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, and Shanghai. The top three in the preliminary round of each sub-station can advance to the semi-finals, and the top six in the semi-finals can go to Japan to participate in the finals.

To help the growth of the project, the contest will provide players with support including cash rewards, overseas exchanges, resource docking, face-to-face tutors, and publicity reports.

Chen Rui, deputy director of the Center for Science and Technology Communication of the China Association for Science and Technology, noted that Ricoh opened up a number of core technology resources in the fields of smart manufacturing, energy conservation and environmental protection, and coordinated with domestic scientific and technological innovation forces to conform to the global low-carbon development trend, thereby creating a good start for the 2021 Overseas Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Week.

Chen hopes that in the future, non-governmental organizations and technology companies in China and Japan will take this opportunity to further strengthen exchanges and stimulate historical opportunities for innovation and development.

In recent years, as China's scientific and technological innovation strength has gradually increased, many multinational giants such as Intel and Ricoh have extended cooperation olive branches to Chinese start-up teams to explore innovation opportunities in new technologies with local companies through entrepreneurial competitions and other methods.