As a follow up to its 2020 Impact Challenge business case competition, Ascend Leadership invites technologists near and far (US and International) to hack together a technical solution to revive small businesses and help them recover from economic loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
THE HACKATHON CHALLENGE
Working with a selected small business or NGO partner, participating teams will have ONE WEEK to produce a functioning technical solution for their partner. Team projects should be designed to meet a specific need formulated by the partner small business or NGO and bring immediate and tangible benefit to the partner. A winning project will be one that successfully applies innovation to the partner’s day-to-day business through the utilization of cyber concepts, data science/visualization, AI/machine learning, or other advanced technologies.
WHY?
With quarantining and social distancing measures in place for over almost a year now, communities everywhere have seen small businesses shutter their doors for good. Despite temporary financial support from public and private sources, the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic has meant that many small businesses simply cannot survive without creating new revenue streams. Small businesses that lack technical savvy are particularly disadvantaged. Ascend challenges you to use your tech skills and business savvy to help small businesses survive, recover, and thrive again!
During this event, your team will engage intensively with your selected partner business or NGO. Your partner will present a specific problem or challenge it is currently facing and your team will have one week to create a functioning technology solution to their problem. The goal of this hackathon is for your partner to walk away with an innovative, actionable, potentially scalable technology solution in hand. While the solution may require refinement after the competition, it should be something that is relatively close to implementation.
WHEN?
This virtual hackathon will take place on March 13 through 20, 2021.
LUCIA LIU
Founder & CEO, Rock The Boat Podcast
Senior Manager, American Express Digital Labs
ANDRES ANGELANI
CEO, Cognizant Softvision
TEAMS
PARTNERS
*Team selected partners will need to meet with hackathon organizers to ensure that the problem statement presented is an appropriate level of complexity for the competition.
JUDGING CRITERIA
Projects will be judged based on the following criteria:
Atul Mene
Executive IT Architect and Hybrid Cloud Integration Practice Lead, IBM
Jasmeen Bal
Systems Integration Engineer, Lucid Motors
Matthew Lee
EVP, Product Engineering Division Head of Innovation, Global Banking Financial Services, Cognizant Softvision
Gilbert Wong
Associate General Counsel, Patents, Facebook
Winners of this hackathon will be selected on March 20, 2021 by our judges. Projects will be evaluated based on the criteria outlined above.
Grand Prize –
The Grand Prize winner will be selected by the judging panel on March 20 and will win–
– Tickets to Ascend’s National Convention in August 2021 for each team member (valued at $1000 each)
– One selection from prize pool
Second Place
The Second Place winner will be selected by the judging panel on March 20 and will win–
– Ascend membership for each team member (valued at $125 each)
– One selection from prize pool
Crowdsource Prize
The Crowdsource Prize winner will be decided by attendee poll on March 20 and will win–
– One selection from prize pool
Most Valuable Hacker
The Most Valuable Hacker prize will be decided by the hackathon organizing team on March 20. It will be awarded to a single participant (not team) based on the participant contributions on Slack and/or social media before and during the competition. The MVH will win–
– LinkedIn Learning Subscription (1 year)
Prize Pool includes…
(Prizes subject to change. The Grand Prize, Second Place, and Crowdsource Prize winning teams will select from the prize pool in that order. One selection per team. Once an item is selected, it will be removed from the pool and cannot be selected again.)
This virtual hackathon will take place on March 13 and 20, 2021.
Saturday, March 13, 2021
Virtual Event Kick Off
(All times in EST. Live event link provided by email and on Slack)
March 13-20, 2021
Teams work on projects with partners independently.
Saturday March 20, 2021
(All times in EST. Live event link provided by email and on Slack)
9 AM | Project Submission Cut Off
1:00 PM | Live Event Starts
1:05 PM | Team Demos
2:20 PM | Speaker: Anna Mok (Ascend) & Crowdsource Vote
2:45 PM | Winners Announced, Closing Remarks
3:00 PM | End of Event
*Schedule subject to change