First GS1 Trace-a-thon awards top prize to creator of supply chain traceability solutions

Team Bloodchain claimed the top $10,000 prize at the first GS1 US Trace-a-thon held October 19-20 at Broadway Studios in San Francisco, Calif.

Their solution focused on connecting providers, donors and patients during the blood donation process and was selected by a panel of judges for its creativity, potential to be disruptive, use of GS1 Standards in the technology and overall presentation. Additionally, XChain won the second-place $4,000 prize and Supplypedia took the third-place $2,000 prize. More than 80 hackers on 18 teams competed in the event designed to create supply chain traceability solutions.

The panel of judges also awarded the following prizes across multiple categories:
● Most Innovative: 5 Metric Tons of Chicken
● Best Use of Technology: Good Stewards
● Best Presentation: Supplì

During the two-day event, members of the developer community, with support from industry mentors, created supply chain visibility solutions that applied GS1 Standards to technologies including blockchain, machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and others. Participants were evaluated for their ability to track the stages an item moves throughout the supply chain and demonstrate interoperability between external trading partner systems—a critical component to enabling effective end-to-end traceability. The solutions addressed a number of critical supply chain issues such as upstream partner enablement, cold chain verification, transparency certifications and data discovery.

“Bloodchain’s solution and the others demonstrated this weekend show us the versatile ways the supply chain can benefit from emerging technology,” said Melanie Nuce, senior vice president, corporate development, GS1 US. “From improving food traceability to enhancing transparency in a healthcare supply chain, GS1 US is fully engaged in the data-sharing challenges across industries and will continue to collaborate with the technology community to raise awareness of the benefits of standards.”

For more information on GS1 US, please visit www.gs1us.org.