Singapore Airlines asks the public to create the next best travel app. Challenges pit participants against real-world business obstacles, with the overall aim of building a groundbreaking travel app. Participants have access to application programming interfaces related to Singapore Airlines flight schedules, status and check-in. From there, contestants are limited only by their own creativity. Last year, only students and polytechnics were invited to compete, but now members of the public can join in as well on teams of up to four. Representatives from Microsoft, IBM and Amadeus act as mentors. Other recognizable partners include SITA, Salesforce, Cisco, Expedia and PayPal. The competition begins Oct. 1, with presentations and judging held Oct. 8. Teams are evaluated on innovation, business value, technical competency, user experience and presentation. First prize for participating students is a trip to Silicon Valley for meetings with Airbus, Google and IBM, as well as a possible internship with SIA. First prize for public winners is Singapore Airlines airfare and cash. “We are very excited to host the SIA App Challenge for a second time. The response for the inaugural competition was extremely heartening, with close to 180 tertiary students participating,” said George Wang, senior vice president, information technology, Singapore Airlines. “This proves that there is keen interest among our young minds to make use of digital technology to further enhance the business development of industries such as aviation.”