Bangalore,  February 12, 2015: The Mercedes-Benz Research & Development India (MBRDI) facility organised the second Daimler Hackathon  for two days this week to on February 10th and 11th,  to foster an environment of creativity, team work and problem solving  among young professionals.
The Hackathon attracted 101 nominees, who formed 38 teams. Unusually, the   three top hack winners were selected by the  participants themselves The winning idea ‘Digital Sense’ proposed the use of NFC (Near Field Communication) technology for knowledge and data sharing.
The Bangalore hack is a follow-up to the the first Hackathon, initiated by Daimler IT in February 2014 at its Mercedes-Benz Museum Stuttgart/Germany HQ.
Dr. Michael Gorriz, CIO Daimler said: “I am impressed with the many business ideas which evolved from the Hackathon event. Digital Life has entered all fields of daily social life. This mega-trend is embraced by Daimler to improveits business model, products, competitiveness and creativity. Communication with customers, target groups and employees can be done more diversely and effectively than ever before.There are opportunities in all fields of corporate life – and behind all processes operates a clever IT.” He said Daimlet was not averse to taking some of the innovative ideas at the hackathon to fruition through mentoring or  funding.  
Added Manu Saale, MD and CEO of MBRDI: “The Hackathon was a great experience for all our employees and management alike. It was interesting to see the enthusiasm and innovative streak in all participants and to learn about the outcome of great ideas which were developed within this 24 hour-long-event. MBRDIis an important contributor within the global RD and IT network. We plan to expand by adding 1,000 more in capacity in the coming year to the already existing over 2,000.”
Four entities of Daimler currently operating out of  India: Mercedes-Benz India Ltd. (MBIL) in Pune, is responsible for productionand sales and marketing of Mercedes-Benz passenger cars; Daimler India Commercial Vehicles operates under the brand name Bharat Benz in Chennai, covering all activities for commercial vehicles; Daimler Financial Services operates under the brand Mercedes-Benz Financial Services for passenger cars and Bharat Benz Financial Services for commercial vehicles; Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India Private Limited (MBRDI) in Bangalore is the largest Daimler Research and Development Center of Daimler outside Germany and contributes to various RD domains and IT engineering.
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The Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India (MBRDI) at Whitefield, Bangalore, is spread across  266,00  sq m.  with capacity of over 2,400 people. With currently over 2,000 engineers, the centre has already  led to over 200 patent filings  for innovation in automotive development since it was started in 1996.  It focuses on computer-aided design and simulations (CAD, CAE) for powertrain, chassis and exteriors to embedded systems, telematics and developing various IT applications and tools. The satellite office in Pune specializes in interior component designs and IT engineering. The centre also houses  the companies  in house SAP  support centre. It is now one of the largest R&D centres of Daimler outside Germany.