A team of three members of SpaceCoffee Aviation took part in the first edition of the AviaTech hackathon, on May 18-19. The event was held in the Subcarpathia region, since its the location of many aviation-related companies' Polish branches.

The team faced the challenge of coming up with, completing and marketing the project they proposed for the “open” category, chosem from all the categories available. Since SC members' interests span across the fields of science, visual arts and technology, their idea was to create a game — a simulator, with the player taking the role of an air traffic controller. This is something that has not been done before on a large scale on the market of aviation training games and applications. The developers at SC Aviation were driven by the idea of creating an alternative to Microsoft Flight Simulator, designed for air traffic controllers. A game in the simulator follows a generated scenario of in-flight events, which are navigated by a player playing the role of an AT controller, or an actual air traffic control tower employee in training. The goal, of course, is to safely allow the aircraft to land at the airport, along with completing all the necessary procedures to help solve problems during the flight. The game is based on and uses actual communication methods and ground station systems and interfaces.

The team finished the hackathon with ambitious plans for the game's controls and further developments, such as VR compatibility. They managed to complete an alpha version of the game during the span of the 24-hour hackathon. For more information on the simulator, visit the dedicated page: ATC Sim.

The 24 hours of work proved exhausting but rewarding, and the team, despite the lack of podium achievements, returned home eager to participate in future editions of AviaTech, and looking forward to the next hackathons.