Recently in Hackathons Category

"I am pleased to invite Ames resident staff to drop in on the "Dark Side of the Jam" gathering in Building 3 on March 8-10, 2013. The Dark Side of the Jam is bringing together top game designers for a "satellite game jam" with the goal of developing space and science games. Dark Side of the Jam challenges gamers to not only to demonstrate their coding prowess, but help capture the public's interest in the science and technology advancements being made in aerospace exploration. Dark Side of the Jam opens with registration at 5 p.m. on Friday, March 8, and runs until 6 p.m. on Sunday, March 10, in the Building 3 Ballroom. The center director will welcome the participants, and then NASA speakers will share knowledge about NASA aeronautics, small spacecraft, robotics, and planetary exploration to ignite ideas. NASA also will provide feedback on Saturday to the game developers. The event kicks off on Friday evening at about 7:30 p.m. NASA also will provide displays and models for inspiration." More

Weird Facts That You Didn't Know About E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, io9

"6) E.T. was Spielberg's response to the "stalled space program."

That's what Spielberg said in 1981, adding: "If the government won't fund the space program, to allow people's imagination to soar, then all I can do is make movies that bring space down to earth and make it more accessible to the imagination."

Keith's note: Of course, E.T. was also a hacker.

ESA Summer Camp Yields Innovative Apps

"This week's ESA App Camp didn't see canoeing or campfires. Developers worked diligently despite the Mediterranean heat to create applications for mobile phones that bring Earth observation and GMES services to the everyday user. Ending today at ESRIN, ESA's centre for Earth observation, in Frascati, Italy, 21 developers from 17 ESA and EU Member States spent the week creating mobile applications - or apps - using satellite data."

RHoK-ing it out with NASA Data, open.nasa.gov

"This weekend, 34 cities across the globe will play host to Random Hacks of Kindness #4. Random Hacks of Kindness is a community of innovation that brings together subject matter experts with volunteer technologists to develop open technology solutions to the global challenges. NASA has a long history with RHoK - we were one of the founding core team members and have been involved ever since!"

Thousands to Gather at NASA in Silicon Valley for Technology Festival, Creating Projects for a Better World

"Campus Party announces the first edition of its Silicon Valley Technology Festival, to be held from August 6-12, 2012, at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. This will be the first event in the United States organized by Campus Party, the world's Starting today, a website with information on the festival is posted at www.campus-party.org .Tickets for the event will be available in February. Several thousand participants from around the world are expected."

Hello Campuseros: As you know, the launch of the spacecraft Curiosity at Cape Canaveral has been delayed, and NASA cannot rule out another change of schedule. In light of this change, we are pushing back the launch of the website for Campus Party, the Silicon Valley Tech Festival. The release will now take place on December 1st at NASA's Ames facility, where Campus Party will be held. We will announce the winners of the #becampusero contest, where one winner and two friends will win an ell expenses paid trip to #cpsiliconvalley, in a live streaming of #geekvibrations.

There's still time to enter the contest! To participate:

1) Change your Twitter avatar using Twibbon: http://campuse.ro/becampusero

2) On December 1st, between 1pm and 5pm (local EST time Florida, USA. GMT -5) send a tweet that says "I want to go to #CPSiliconValley because I'm a campusero, are you? #becampusero www.campus-party.org"

The winner will get the two trips, and one "extra" for the person who reported the promotion. Therefore, if you help us by telling all your friends and encouraging them to participate, you will have many more chances to win. Hurry up and ask all your friends to put on the helmet and send a campusero tweet on the 1st. See you in Silicon Valley!

Kris Kimmel of Kentucky Space is organizing the first hackerSPACE Workshop, which provides an opportunity for makers learn about building spacecraft from space professionals and engineers. The focus of the workshop is on the CubeSat satellite platform. The workshop is November 11-12 in Lexington, Kentucky. The workshop will be led by Bob Twiggs, Emeritus professor and former director of the Space Systems Development Lab at Stanford University, now professor at Morehead State University and also with Kentucky Space. Bob is credited with inventing the CubeSat spacecraft, which is now helping to revolutionize space, putting it within reach of more people than ever. More

Event Date: August 4-5, 2011

Location: TBD/Virtual - Check website for details.

Audience: All welcome, especially students!

Web: http://open.nasa.gov/maker (NASA-only access)

Maker Camp is an effort stemming from the burgeoning NASA Forward group targeted at engaging the work force in fast, hyper-local projects that advance NASA's mission and vision. Based on the "Maker" culture, the concept is to gather interested individuals and go about creating something new. Several centers have already conducted their Maker Camps, focusing on 2 to 3 activities ranging from physical creations to process improvements.

Do you like to build, tinker and try new things? Do you wish some days that you could just get your hands dirty and create something? Maker Camp is an internal pilot project focused on creating a culture of experimentation by offering individuals the chance to collaborate on quick, innovative projects that are good for the center and the agency. JSC will connect remotely and work collaboratively with teams at ARC to see what we can do together in a short, focused period of time.

Breakfast and overview is at 9 a.m., and project pitches and group selection are at 10 a.m. on Thursday Aug. 4 in Building 29 the sp.ace (please see http://www.opennasa.com/space/ for directions). Projects will be presented/demoed on Friday afternoon, Aug. 5. Watch http://open.nasa.gov/maker/ for live updates during the event.

Global Community Experts and Volunteers Tackle Development Problems Through Random Hacks of Kindness

"RHoK is embracing the concept of 'open innovation', the idea of bringing together thousands of people from around the world to crowd source some of our toughest challenges," said Deborah Diaz, Deputy Chief Information Officer at NASA. "NASA is excited about this critical step for the innovation community. This expansion of the RHoK mission will allow more creative interaction with NASA's open data to develop impactful solutions."

Competitors build life-saving apps for disasters and emergencies in global weekend challenge

"The teams at Random Hacks of Kindness Toronto (RHoK Toronto) are among some 1,000 people in 18 cities across 6 continents participating in a global weekend-long hacking marathon, or "hackathon," that unites technologists and humanitarian experts in an effort to solve pressing problems."

Hacking for a good cause, Canoe

"It's unbelievable that the teams are able to create these mobile apps and online tools in less than 48 hours," said Heather Leson, lead organizer of RHoK Toronto. "By dinner time Saturday, one team here had already programmed a working prototype! "The best part of Random Hacks of Kindness is that no matter which teams win Toronto's pitch competition, all the participants learn, mentor and share in their world. Plus, some projects will continue and maybe become fully built," she said."

Random Hacks of Kindness rocks the ATDC, Georgia Tech

"ATDC and the Georgia Tech Research Institute are co-sponsoring Random Hacks of Kindness Atlanta going on today at the ATDC. Over 40 developers, designers, project managers and subject matter experts convened on Friday. Seven pitches were made to the group for hacks to benefit humanity. Six of the projects were picked up and are all well underway and on track to be ready by the end of the 24-hour hackathon."

NASA joined with Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and the World Bank Dec. 3-4 to bring together computer experts looking for new approaches to disaster relief challenges. The third Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) event included more than 1,500 software developers, students and disaster risk experts for a "hackathon" at 20 locations around the world. The locations included New York, Toronto, Buenos Aires, Tel Aviv, Nairobi and Bangalore, India.

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver joined U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to deliver introductory remarks at the RHoK event in New York. Google Vice President of Research Alfred Spector and RHoK co-founder Patrick Svenburg, director of government platform strategy at Microsoft, also attended.

On December 4 and 5, in over twenty locations around the world, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, NASA and The World Bank will host the third Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK), their progressive initiative that brings together volunteer software developers and experts in disaster risk management for a weekend-long "hackathon" to create software solutions that can help mitigate or respond to disasters around the world and help save lives.