At first blush, the term “hackathon” may conjure images of sinister teams — perhaps wearing Guy Fawkes masks — breaking down the security measures of a high-profile computer network in search of top secret files or embarrassing e-mails. Such dramatized visuals, however, are far from the actual impetus behind the Indiana vs. Texas Challenge, a three-week event organized by the Indy Chamber and TechPoint in partnership with the State of Indiana.
Hackathons are challenges that invite competing teams to develop innovative applications that benefit the public at-large. In this event, teams of students, faculty, industry professionals, entrepreneurs or talented citizens from Indiana or Texas are invited to take on four specific challenges — two from each state — with the winner of each individual challenge awarded $4,000.
From there, the two winning challenges from each state compete for the overall grand prize – another $4,000 and bragging rights for the winning state. The challenges for each team come from public agencies in their respective states and include:
Indiana
- Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM): Teams are challenged to create a “centralized, streamlined, secure platform” that allows IDEM to receive, track, and collaborate documents that include application permits, reports, and correspondence. IDEM currently handles 22 permit types — many received in either a paper or paper/electronic format — with many requiring signatures. Current methods of handling and tracking such documents results in “significant” time loss and a streamlined, transparent process is sought. Read more here.
- Indiana Department of Homeland Security (IDHS): Teams are challenged to develop a “One-Stop-Shop” application to help Hoosiers affected by emergencies or natural disasters such as tornadoes or floods. IDHS seeks to create a database to register Hoosiers who seek assistance following disasters and, by use of a questionnaire, produce a printed checklist that guides them to the proper state agencies. The database must generate reports for each agency that lists all people who seek their assistance. It also must be preserved after the disaster so Indiana has the data it needs to aid cost recovery from FEMA. Read more here.
Texas
- Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT): Teams are challenged to develop a mobile app for www.my35.org, a transportation planning application that provides information on road conditions, current and future lane closures and traffic delays. Read more here.
- Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS): Teams are challenged to devise an application that provides a map-based view and service offerings of localized child-care operations. Read more here.
The competition begins at 10 a.m. Saturday (Jan. 31) with the Indiana launch event hosted by Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis’ Informatics and Communications Technology complex. The event will be in Room 152 of the complex, located at 535 W. Michigan St. At the same time, satellite events also will be held at four locations statewide:
- Bloomington: Cyberinfrastructure Building (main level), 2709 E. 10th St.
- Muncie: L.A. Pittenger Student Center, Ball State University.
- South Bend: Innovation Park at Notre Dame, 1400 E. Angela Blvd.
- West Lafayette: The Anvil, 320 North St.
The submission deadline for projects is Feb. 23, with state winners announced March 2. The overall champion — and winning state — of the hackathon will be revealed March 12. An comprehensive schedule of events is available here.
The event enjoys widespread support from nearly two-dozen sponsors and include IU and IUPUI, which serve as supporting sponsors and college partners.
The presenting sponsors include: AT&T, Indiana Interactive, Interactive Intelligence, KSM Consulting and SAP. Additional supporting sponsors include: Netlogx, iLab, Perscio and Kronos. Additional college sponsors include: Ball State University, Purdue University, the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and the University of Notre Dame. In-kind sponsors include: The Bureau, Eleven Fifty Coding Academy, Launch Fishers and The Speak Easy.
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