The NASA Space Apps Challenge – the biggest hackathon in the galaxy, happened earlier this year in Ponta Grossa at Unicesumar University, among October 19th and October 21st. As an international competition took place in several cities around the word simultaneously. The challenges were all technological and humanitarian and the participants had 24 hours to develop a solution for one of the twenty problems presented by NASA.
CINQ’s employee, César Schneider, was an integrant in the winning team. They choose a challenge where they had to help people who live in regions susceptible to natural disasters. Using a list of informations provided by NASA’s website plus satellite data, they developed an app containing a checklist that would activate when the disaster was about to happen according to NASA’s satellite, so people could see the essential items to carry and all the information on the imminent disaster, besides an escape route – giving people a real shot at survival.
After conquering the regional victory, the next step is to go through the global phase of the dispute. The disclosure of the results will happen in early January. The ultimate winners will win tickets for the NASA rocket launching in Orlando, FL.
“The event was an opportunity for people to get familiar with concepts like Hackathon, Design Thinking and such. And speaking for my team and other teams, was an opportunity for us to get to know each other and interact with others who enjoy healthy competition, where the teams trade knowledge e search for innovative ways to solve complex issues through data and hands-on method. This allows us, during the solution development, to immerse in the wide range of possibilities of our minds”.