THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
International SpaceApps challenge, one of world’s major problem-solving and open innovation competitions held annually by the US space agency NASA to build solutions for problems being faced on the earth and space, has got under way at the KeralaStartup Mission (KSUM), along with multiple locations across the globe.
KSUM will nominate the first two teams emerging as winners for the next phase of the challenge, while the next three teams finishing behind them will be given cash prize of Rs 10,000 each by KSUM. The participants can register for the competition till Saturday morning and the winners will be declared during Sunday afternoon.
The participants in the Space Apps Challenge Trivandrum can make use of the Future Labs of KSUM at Technopark here.
Since its inception in 2012, the Space Apps Challenge has become the world’s largest global hackathons with thousands of citizens across the globe having worked with NASA data and products to build innovative solutions to challenges on Earth and in space. These projects have showcased innovative and creative open source solutions, valuable not only to NASA but also to the entire global community.
Trivandrum was one of the hosts for Space Apps 2017 and clocked a participation of 22 teams, which was one of the highest from India.
Some of the most popular projects from Trivandrum included creating a crowd-sourced platform to compare environmental changes with symptoms of respiratory diseases, building an educational app to help young students locate the moon and developing an app to support local drone operators.
The challenge is open to all, whether she or he is a newcomer, or a seasoned hackathon veteran; a beginner or an expert; a student, an entrepreneur, a technologist, a scientist, a designer, a storyteller, an artist, or an individual with unique skills and ideas, based on the approach that “each and every one has the capacity to bring about paradigm-shifting innovations.”
The Space Apps Challenge brings together coders, makers and entrepreneurs from around the world to form teams and solve various “challenges” developed by NASA. It is an unprecedented international collaboration between government agencies, organizations, and academic institutions, which can leverage NASA data and products to design solutions to scientific and environmental challenges.
Trivandrum is one of the six places hosting the competition in India, other cities being Bangaluru, Delhi, Hyderabd, Mohali and Vijayawada. For details: Link, https://2018.spaceappschallenge.org/locations/trivandrum
