Huntsville, AL

United States

Space Apps Huntsville, AL was held on April 29th & 30th. Thank you to the 98 people who joined the International Space Apps Challenge at this location. The local results, including the work of 22 teams, can be found below!
Thanks Huntsville, AL!

Local People's Choice Winner

The people have spoken! This is the project that captured our hearts.

Join us for Huntsville's first-ever Space Apps Challenge! 

Join us on Saturday, April 29th - Sunday, April 30th, 2017 for the 1st NASA Space Apps Challenge in Huntsville!

What's this all about? We're going to spend 32 hours coming up with innovative ideas that could change the world, all while having fun and collaborating with amazing, passionate people. 

The event will be held at Huntsville STEAM Works inside Lowe Mill. Huntsville STEAM Works is the evolution of MindGear Labs - a brand new 6,000 sq/ft hardware prototyping lab. The venue's machinery, great WiFi, and ample parking add up to an ideal location to spend a weekend making cool stuff. Just bring your brain, laptop, and passion for problem solving. 

Visit our website for more details: http://www.spaceappshsv.com

Registration

Click the "Sign Up" button to sign up and then register. You can register as an individual or you can form a team in advance, but unfortunately there is no way to register as a team (you'll each have to register individually). If you don't have a team, no worries! We've allocated time before the event starts to help you join a team. 

Anyone of any age, background or skill set is welcome to participate in the event! Teams typically consist of 3-5 people, with roles ranging between Writer, Project Manager, Designer, Coder, and Engineer.


Teams

Teams are 3-5 people. Teams can consist of remote teammates, but must have at least one person from their team physically present to present their solution during the judging on Sunday, April 30th (beginning at 3 P.M.). 

If you do not have a team, we'll help you join one! We'll have people at both our Kickoff Party as well as our main event who will be helping individuals and small teams join/find teammates.

Please be sure to review our Participant Guide.


Speakers

  • Friday, April 28, 6:00pm - Kickoff Party
    David Burns, Manager of the Science and Technology Office, NASA

  • Saturday, April 29, 9:00am - Keynote
    Andrew Keys, Center Chief Technologist, Marshall Space Flight Center

  • Saturday, April 29, 11:00pm - Lunch
    Monsi Roman, Centennial Challenges Program Manager, NASA

  • Saturday, April 29, 6:00pm - Dinner
    Mark Spencer, Founder of Asterisk, Digium, and Avilution

  • Sunday, April 30, 12:00pm - Lunch
    Tim Pickens, Founder of Orion Propulsion and Pickens Innovations

Judges

  • Tony Lindeman, Senior Systems Engineer, Jacobs Technology
  • Antonio Montoya, Founder of Rocket Hatch and Executive Director at Huntsville West
  • Rob Birchmeier, Identity, Credentials, and Access Management (ICAM) Lead, Marshall Space Flight Center
  • Jason Pullias, Senior Mobile Application Developer, SAIC
  • Tim Pickens, Founder of Orion Propulsion and Pickens Innovations
  • Mark Spencer, Founder of Asterisk, Digium, and Avilution
  • Dr. William Marx, Deputy Director of Engineering, Intuitive Research and Technology, Inc.
  • Dr. Charlotte Hughes, Proposal Manager and Business Development Analyst, Qualis Corporation
  • Annette Fisher, Aerospace Engineer, Department of Defense
  • Brock Cabot, Electrical Engineer, Department of Defense
  • Angela Shelby, Program Analyst III, NASA Agency Applications Office
  • Dave Fisher, Electrical Engineer, AMRDEC
  • Gregory Hanis, Founder, HACKBAMA
  • Mike Murdock, Founder, Huntsville STEAM Works

Challenges

For participants who are interested in competing, we encourage you to start preparing your ideas now! Here's a sneak peak at the Space Apps 2017 challenge categories:

  1. The Earth and Us
  2. Planetary Blues
  3. Warning! Danger Ahead!
  4. Our Ecological Neighborhood
  5. Ideate and Create!

We also have a number of community challenges that have been submitted. While these challenges won't get you recognized by NASA's international acknowledgement committee, they'll still make you eligible to win any of our prizes below.

  1. Magnetic Shield
  2. Augmented Reality Props for Interactive Simulation of Equipment
  3. Virtual and Augmented Reality Worlds for Earth Science Missions
  4. Mechanical tracking system for tracking a low earth orbit satellite
  5. Earth Sensing for Situational Awareness
  6. Non-pyrotechnic Separation and Deployment Mechanisms
  7. Create Website to Browse the NASA Image and Video Library Collection
  8. Create a Podcast from the NASA Image and Video Library Collection
  9. NASA – Extensible Control Assessment Tool (NECAT)


Prizes

  • Thanks to a generous $10,000 donation, we'll be awarding cash prizes in the following categories:

    High School:

    1st place: $2,000, tour of Marshall Space Flight Center

    Lean Forward, Fail Smart Innovation Award (given to the team who took the most risk and persevered, dared to try, was highly effective in applying lessons learned in a short time frame, and exhibited strong collaboration):  $1,000


    College:

    1st place: $3,000, tour of Marshall Space Flight Center

    2nd place: $1,000

    Lean Forward, Fail Smart Innovation Award: $1,000


    Professional:

    1st place: $1,000, tour of Marshall Space Flight Center

    Lean Forward, Fail Smart Innovation Award: $1,000


    Overall awards:

    Overall winner: Tour of Marshall Space Flight Center and the opportunity to present you work to MSFC CTO, and a Engine test experience in Mississippi at NASA Stennis Space Center at winning team's own expense.

    Best presentation: Flight for 2 over Huntsville

    Most complete solution: Tour of Phil Sumrall's hangar and airplanes

  • Private 1 hour flight over Huntsville provided by Crossflow Technologies
  • A tour for 5 of Phil Sumrall's hangar and airplanes
  • A tour of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
  • Lunch with MSFC Center Chief Technologist and present design/work to MSFC Center Chief Technologist, Engineering Directorate Managers, or Challenge Owner
  • Tour of NASA Stennis Space Center (Mississippi) to see an engine firing and a tour of NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans (trip at challenge winner's own expense)


Sponsors


Organizers


More Info

Please visit our website at http://www.spaceappshsv.com for more info!


Flyer

Please distribute the flyer and help us get additional participants!

HSV Space Apps Flyer


Participating Companies

Schedule

Saturday, April 29th
  1. Registration,

  2. Opening Remarks: New Leaf Digital
    Sponsored Speaker: Hal Brewer, President of Intuitive Research
    AIAA: Challenges, Speakers, Judges, Prizes
    Keynote Speaker: Andrew Keys, Center Technologist for NASA: "The Role of Advanced Manufacturing on the Journey to Mars"

  3. Speaker: Monsi Roman, Centennial Challenges Program Manager, NASA: "Centennial Challenges: How NASA Involves the Nation in the Journey to Mars and Beyond"
    Lunch: Neon Lilly Food Truck
    Matt Brooks: Hackathon logistics

  4. Hackathon Begins!

  5. Dinner (Provided) - sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton
    Speaker: Angie Shelby - Pitching Workshop
    Speaker: Mark Spencer

  6. Participants choose to either sleep over (bring sleeping bags) or go home to sleep

Sunday, April 30th
  1. Midnight Snack - sponsored by Torch Technologies!
    Dance Party - DJ MBR00kZ will put on an EDM show to keep you coding

  2. Breakfast

  3. Lunch
    Tracie Prater: How the Code Freeze will work

  4. Speaker: Tim Pickens

  5. Code Freeze!

  6. Presentations Start!

  7. Judges Deliberate
    Awards Ceremony

  8. Done
    Dinner/Drinks at Humphrey's

NASA Logo

SpaceApps is a NASA incubator innovation program.