Kicking off BuildTogether Hackathon 2025

_{The 2025 Hackathon Coin: the 3 interlocking cubes represent the fundamental building blocks of design, engineering, and strategy that are required for quality digital products.} 

Building on the success of the inaugural Hackathon 2024, BuildTogether Hackathon 2025 promises to deliver even more digital solutions for the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF). Last year’s event brought together users and developers across the SAF, emphasising the motto: "For the SAF, by the SAF." This year, we aim to continue this collaboration, tackling new challenges and advancing innovation even further.

Building on 2024's Success
In 2024, 40 developers tackled 9 problem spaces across 4 services, driven by a single purpose: leveraging technology to deliver impact to the SAF. The hackathon reinforced the belief that the quality of software is closely tied to the quality of interactions between developers and stakeholders. Participants from diverse backgrounds include active personnel, dedicated NSmen who are seasoned software engineers, interns, and NSFs from the RSAF Agile innovation Department (RAiD).

What's New in 2025?
Our upcoming hackathon builds on these lessons, setting the stage for more complex projects. This year’s event will bring together participants from entities such as the Naval Ops Dept (NOD), Joint Training Dept (JTD), Singapore Maritime Crisis Centre (SMCC), Joint Intelligence Command (JIC), SAF C4 and Digitalisation Command's C4 Ops Group (C4OG), RAiD, and the SAF Space Development Office, to identify real-world challenges and prototype impactful solutions.

Examples of Challenges Submitted 

• Streamlined Processes for the Organisation of Meetings
  Secretariats shoulder a significant administrative workload, from collating item registrations, retrieval of past minutes, as well as filing and distribution of meeting materials. A solution could be developed to streamline the end-to-end process for such tasks on the SAF’s non internet-facing Ops Support IT systems.

• Scenario Generator for Training
  An interactive real-time scenario generator could produce dynamic situations to support training. This allows personnel to hone their decision-making in response to uncertain operational scenarios.

Stay tuned for our post-hackathon wrap-up article to learn more about the highlights and innovative solutions showcased during the event.