SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Agora.io (www.agora.io), the global leader in real-time communications (RTC) solutions, today announced the grand winner of DeveloperWeek Hackathon, the nation’s largest challenge-driven hackathon. GarageBoard, a real-time collaborative whiteboard for programmers, was named the winning project for both Agora’s RTC Challenge and the entire hackathon competition.

As a featured sponsor of DeveloperWeek Hackathon, Agora challenged developers to embed real-time voice and video functionality in creative new ways that enhance the user experience. The winning team successfully integrated Agora’s Video Calling & Signaling APIs to introduce an innovative live streaming element to their final product.

“We’re truly blown away by the level of submissions we received throughout the hackathon. Each team reimagined how existing concepts and platforms can be improved through the use of live video,” said Sid Sharma, Agora’s developer evangelist. “GarageBoard is one of the most innovative use cases we’ve seen with our video API and it offers a much-needed tool that marries modern productivity with real-time collaboration.”

Created by the GarageScript team, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping and training new software engineers, GarageBoard provides an interactive architectural planning tool for programmers and engineers to collaborate in real time.

The digital whiteboard automatically converts user-scribbled notes and drawings into digital shapes and text using artificial intelligence and machine learning for easy editing and exporting. GarageBoard also uses Agora’s RTC technology to embed real-time messaging, voice chat, and video conferencing right into the digital whiteboard for dynamic team collaboration.

“Agora’s APIs couldn’t have been easier to use. The sample code was well-written and the entire process was quick and painless,” said Ming Zhu, Technical Lead at GarageScript. “We were able to get everything integrated with just two people in a matter of hours, and the level of customization is quite impressive.”

“With the proliferation of live streaming changing the way live, work, and interact with one another, we’re excited to arm developers with the tools to drive the next wave of innovation,” added Sharma.

This year’s hackathon attracted 160 teams competing for $100,000 in cash and prizes, and judges included a panel of industry veterans from companies such as IBM, Airbnb, TomTom, and Box.

To learn more about Agora’s Video Calling & Signaling APIs, click here.

About Agora.io
Founded in 2014, Agora is a high-growth Communications-Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) provider delivering mobile-first, real-time communications for developers and businesses globally. Agora’s API is the most widely adopted API for real-time communications around the world, installed on more than 500 million devices and rapidly growing.

The Agora real-time communication stack includes features like include voice calling, video calling, group conferencing, interactive broadcasting, and much more. Reliable, accessible and scalable, Agoria.io provides communications services to organizations across industries, including telemedicine, education, financial services, customer service, social media applications, and mobile gaming.

Agora is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA and backed by venture capital firms Morningside, SIG, GGV Capital, ShunWei, and IDG.

For more information, please visit: www.agora.io.

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SOURCE Agora.io