Johns Hopkins APL Hosts Baltimore-Washington Space Apps Challenge, April 11–12

The 2015 Baltimore-Washington Space Apps Challenge will host teams of creative technology enthusiasts on April 11–12 at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. This event is part of the International Space Apps Challenge, a NASA incubator innovation program that brings together thousands of tech-savvy creative teams around the world to tackle space science and technology problems.

“The challenges presented this year offer exciting opportunities for teams to really showcase their creativity, talents and abilities,” said Wes Jenkins, an engineer at APL and co-organizer of the event. “APL is providing a stimulating and exciting space to help teams mold their ideas into solutions.”

Technology and software developers, engineers, designers, students and other participants will gather at the Lab to form teams and join the global technology development marathon. This year, event participants will work on 35 new challenges in four categories: outer space, Earth, humans and robotics. Teams will use publicly released open data to create hardware, software, mobile applications, data visualizations and platform solutions. Local winners may be selected to move on to the next stage of international competition.

“The Baltimore-Washington Space Apps Challenge is a collaborative effort to extend APL’s established problem-solving capabilities,” said APL’s Daisy Zhang, a software engineer in the Space Exploration Sector and co-organizer of the event. “We’re going to share what we know about working on challenges with the teams to help them produce open-source solutions for global needs in space and on Earth.”

“These challenges will provide opportunities for U.S. and global citizen scientists, engineers and students to interact and contribute to space exploration through code development, data analytics, innovation, open source software and hardware,” said NASA Chief Technology Officer Deborah Diaz.

Registration for the event is open through April 11. Anyone 13 and older is invited to participate in the event; those younger than 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. The challenge will be open from 8 a.m. Saturday, April 11, until 5 p.m. Sunday, April 12. Spectators are welcome.

For event registration and visitor information about APL, visit https://2015.spaceappschallenge.org/location/baltimorewashington/.

To learn more about the International Space Apps Challenge, visit https://2015.spaceappschallenge.org/.

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