Wouldn’t it be great to have a smart phone app where all you had to do was snap a photo of an ugly graffiti tag and the image would get sent to a clean up crew that would come and take care of the scourge? Or what if there was an app that people could use to ensure that trees get planted in vacant plots and tree beds? Think of all of the environmental, social, grassroots community activist initiatives that we could tackle if given the adequate technological resources.
On Saturday, October 10, AT&T will be sponsoring the WNY Civic Hackathon – a hacking session that will last for 13 hours. So far, there are 90 registered participants that will be dedicating their efforts to solving the following issues: Housing/Property Blight, Transportation, and Advocacy/Public Policy.
Developers, makers, innovative thinkers, entrepreneurs, technologists, and community activists will all be participating to create the most innovative and effective civic-minded programs that are aimed at making WNY a better place to work and live. Throughout the challenge, there will be local experts in the assigned fields on hand to help guide the hackers through navigating regional challenges.
Partnering to put on the Hackathon are: AT&T, United Way of Buffalo & Erie County, University at Buffalo’s Association for Computing Machinery (AMC) and Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (STOR) , dig Buffalo, WNY Innovation Hot Spot, InfoTech WNY and Buffalo Open Data.
On Sunday, October 11, judges will take a look at what the hackers came up with. Judges include Sabrina Ramsey, CEO and Serial Entrepreneur Insight International; Michael Weiner, president & CEO, United Way Of Buffalo & Erie County; Paul Buckley, President, Applied Sciences Group; Dr. Varun Chandola, Assistant Professor, University at Buffalo, Computer Science; and Martin Casstevens Business Formation & Commercialization Manager UB’s Office of STOR.
Cash prizes totaling $3,500 will be awarded, with a grand prize of $2,000, followed by a second place prize of $1,000 and $500 for third place.
WNY Civic Hackathon
WHERE: dig Buffalo, 640 Ellicott Street, Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Buffalo, NY
WHEN: Saturday, October 10, 2015, 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Hackathon (best time to attend would be 10qam –noon or 2pm-4pm)
Sunday, October 11, 2015, 9-11am project presentations/demos and awards (best time to attend would be 10am –noon or 2pm-4pm)