NASA's International Space Apps Challenge is a weekend-long, global, interdisciplinary hackathon where anyone can get involved in projects relating to space exploration, environmental science, robotics, and a whole host of other topics of interest to space agencies around the globe. You don't need to be a programmer or engineer or have any expertise in aerospace technology to participate. Whatever skills you have, you bring to the weekend where you'll work cooperatively in a team to come up with a creative solution to one of the challenges set by the international panel. It's a great way to learn new things, meet new people, and have a whole lot of fun.


Where Will We Be?
See the map at http://spaceappsgc.tumblr.com/post/116030896844/tonight-friday-at-6-well-be-in-the-reynolds

We'll be at Greensboro College. Founded in 1838, it's one of the oldest colleges in the United States. Today, Greensboro College provides undergraduate students a true liberal-arts education including a range of STEM majors such as Biology, Ecology, Psychology with a focus in human factors, Mathematics and more. In addition, the College offers four different master's degrees in education. The College provides a coeducational and independent learning atmosphere with approximately 1,000 undergraduate students from 24 states, the District of Columbia, and 24 nations. 

What Will The Weekend Be Like?
On Friday evening we'll be meeting for snacks and lightning talks to give us some context around the challenges that we'll be working on over the weekend.

On Saturday morning we start the day right with a light breakfast while we watch the event launch video from NASA and the Global Space Apps Coordination Team and then listen to pitches for projects to solve the challenges that our site has chosen to work on. If you have a favorite challenge or an idea for a solution, come prepared to pitch your idea and recruit a team to work with you! By 11am we'll be splitting up into teams and settling down to work. 

You'll have the rest of the weekend to work on the project that you have chosen. You can work on more than one project, if you choose, and some people with especially in demand skills -- such as artists and designers -- often have the chance to collaborate with teams from around the world throughout the weekend.

On Sunday afternoon at about 3pm, all the teams will start preparing their presentations to share their work with the world. You'll upload code, documentation and designs to GitHub.com, and fill out an online form on this website so that local and international judges have a way to see what you've done. At 4pm we'll stop work on our projects, and then each team will present what they've done to the community and local judges. At 5:30 our judges will present certificates and awards to all of the local teams and announce which teams have been chosen to go on for international judging. After that, all the participants will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite project to receive the People's Choice award for Greensboro, which will also go on for the chance to get an international prize.

How Are The Projects Judged?
There are five areas covered in the international portion of the judging. These are:

• Impact: How much impact (quality and quantity) can this project have? Does it solve a big problem or a little problem?
• Creativity: How creative is the approach? Is the project new and something that hasn’t been attempted before? Is it something that isn't being addressed by the market?
• Product: How well does this project fit the needs of the challenge it addresses? How user friendly is the technology? Is it a complete solution or does it have a long way to go?
• Sustainability: How good is the plan for next steps? How prepared is the project team to continue their work beyond the event? Is the project organized in a way so others can take the project to the next level?
• Presentation: How well did the team communicate their project? Are they effective in telling the story of the project and why it is important?

In addition, we will have local awards for projects, teams, and individuals based on participation, collaboration (in a team, across teams, internationally), and active learning (how far did you stretch yourself?). 

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Projects Nominated for Global Judging

People's choice

Stellar Visage

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Projects Receiving Local Awards

All The Awesomeness - Stellar Visage

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Resources

• Greensboro on Twitter
• Greensboro Blog

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Sponsors

• Geeks Without Bounds
• Greensboro College
• Hirlan
• Three Rivers Social Research
• Lowes Foods at New Garden Crossing
• GitHub
• IBM Bluemix
• Splunk