2015 Water Energy Nexus Hackathon Overview

Wondering what the 2015 Water/Energy Nexus Hackathon was all about?

In general, a Hackathon is a 2-3 day event where individuals come together to solve various problems – typically through self organizing teams that develop software or applications to address the problems. These events can be hosted as a single instance, or as part of a broader competition. The Hackathon organizer create an engaging environment for the “hackers” to learn, test and explore new technologies by providing content resources, data sets or other information that may assist the participants in the development of their projects. 

The outcome of the event is a presentation of projects created by the various teams that are then ranked/judged by a group of individuals in exchange for prize money and other awards. Typically, the teams own any intellectual property developed over the course of a Hackathon.

When developing this Hackathon, we had the following goals in mind:

1) Engage a variety of water industry stakeholders in a collaborative learning environment with one another.

2) Introduce individuals with a technology background to water issues and engage them in understanding the issues through competitive problem solving.

3) Provide a high level of awareness within the industry to showcase the value of innovation and collaboration

4) Develop software/hardware that may be commercially viable to encourage entrepreneurial endeavors

5) Have fun, learn from one another and leave with a sense of accomplishment.

Watch to learn more about the 2015 Water/Energy Nexus Hackathon!