NASA and other global space agencies participated in the fourth annual International Space Apps Challenge, held April 11-12, 2015 at more than 135 locations worldwide. Software Engineering Professionals (SEP) hosted the first ever site in Indiana at the company’s Carmel office.
“The spirit of discovery and innovation is alive and well in Carmel. As one of the top high-tech employment hubs in America, along with Indianapolis, we were pleased to host an event of such magnitude and importance to the future of space exploration,” said Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard.
During the two-day hackathon, participants were asked to develop mobile applications, software, hardware, and data visualization and platform solutions that could contribute to space exploration missions and help improve life on Earth.
“These challenges provide opportunities for US 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 Deborah Diaz, agency chief technology officer at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
The international event brought together over 12,500 participants in more than 60 countries, creating almost 1,000 projects.
“Nearly every kid that grows up ‘geek’ has dreams of space and NASA,” said Raman Ohri, SEP President. “For our team to be a part of that, building software, was a fantastic experience.
This year, 35 challenges represent NASA mission priorities in four areas: Earth studies, space exploration, human health research, and robotics. Many of the challenges were in the Earth theme, supporting NASA’s missions to monitors Earth’s vital signs from land, air, and space.
SEP’s involvement can be found here: labs/spaceapps/
A full list of challenges can be viewed here: https://spaceappschallenge.org
