6th Annual Startup Hackathon held at CSUMB
The 6th annual Startup Hackathon at CSUMB focused on Natural Disaster Relief.
Sixteen teams were tasked with creating technology preparing for, surviving and recovering from natural disasters. The teams were made up of students from around the Central Coast.
Many happy to hear the theme this year, “it’s really relevant right now, I mean today you hear about almost every disaster. I haven’t had any family thankfully that has been near disasters but I read about it everyday,” says Nigel Hardy a senior at CSUMB.
Hardy and his team created a web and phone application called “I am Safe.” The app allows people to check-in, in disaster zones, to let loved ones know you are safe. “if there was something I would want to know 5 minutes from now are all of my family members safe,” says Hardy.
The team called “Life is Ruff” created an app that helps family members reconnect with their pets after a disaster. The team says after disasters in recent years they noticed a trend in families losing or having a hard time reuniting with their pets, “After hurricane Harvey and hurricane catrina we’ve heard stories of families being separated from their pets being forced to evacuate and not being able to take their pets with them, not able to find shelters that house pets so we wanted to create a resources for people to not have that separation and if they do get separated, to be reunited,” says Sophomore Shaun Kallis, student from Monterey Peninsula College.
Lecturer at CSUMB and facilitator of the Startup Hackathon, Jason Henderson, contributes much of this years success to the theme of the event. “Typically with an event like this you might get half or less than half actually show up that signed up, I think we’re near capacity, I think more than I’ve seen before, people finishing what they set out to do and keep going with it,” says Henderson.
The event started Friday November 3rd. Each team had until Sunday November 5th at 2pm to finish their products. They were then judged by peers and other parties on their work.
Out of the 16 teams, “I am Safe” took home first place. Team “First Responders” took home 2nd place. And “Life is Ruff” took home the crowd favorite award.
