Mahuki innovation accelerator welcomes future digital leaders

Te Papa's Mahuki innovation accelerator has welcomed 10 teams to this year's residency programme that will run over the next four months.

The teams were first welcomed with a pōwhiri at the Rongomaraeroa marae. According to Te Papa chief Geraint Martin, who was part of the welcoming party, he's excited to welcome this year's future digital leaders.

"Te Papa is always looking at ways to enable new kinds of storytelling and connect New Zealanders with their taonga. We look forward to what they produce for the cultural, heritage and learning sectors to enhance the user experience," Martin says.

This year's teams come from as far north as Auckland and as far south as Invercargill – and a few places in between.  They will have access to Te Papa experts including Mahuki entrepreneur-in-residence Ezel Kokcu.

They will also access resources, visitors, and the wider cultural and business sector expertise to develop their ideas.

Those ideas include machine learning for art, an event-finding app, mixed reality and sensory experiences for museums, and an augmented reality game.

This is the third year the Mahuki accelerator is running – and it has already helped 18 teams develop their innovations. 61% of those teams have continued on to secure 22 paid deployments in New Zealand's cultural sector.

Let's take a look at this year's teams:

·       MIMICRY (from Invercargill) - using machine learning to encourage youth to create art in the style of well-known artists.

·       SHOWMODE (from Wellington) -  A multi-platform app that takes the stress out of running events.

·       TOWN SQUARE (from Wellington) - An app that provides a one-stop solution to find and bookmark events in your city.

·       UPTO (from Taranaki) - An online platform to encourage rangatahi (youth) to become more engaged in their community.

·       FISHHOOK (from Wellington) - Science workshops and events aimed at adults to encourage lifelong learning.

·       JIX LIMITED (from Christchurch) - Sensory experiences for collection objects in GLAM institutions using mixed reality.

·       HIAMO (from Wellington) - An augmented reality app that recreates historical gun emplacements

·       MERGE CREATIVE AGENCY (from Dunedin) - An augmented reality game that engages youth to explore museums more deeply.

·       TAKE ME BACK (from Nelson) - Creating a linked data cloud based service to increase access to collections across museums.

·       LITMAPS (from Auckland) - Creative interactive maps for connecting research data to aid academics.  

Mahuki is supported by Callaghan Innovation, Morrison Kent, Deloitte Private and is a member of the INCO network. One of the benefits of the INCO partnership is that Mahuki startup teams have access to INCO's Jump Seat Express Program – where teams can have a one-week learning expedition to explore new avenues for growth in a foreign market.