iSchool to host NASA event

SYRACUSE — The School of Information Studies (iSchool) at Syracuse University will serve as one of 50 sites around the world for the second International Space Apps Challenge, sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The hackathon-style event will take place at the iSchool April 20 and 21. NASA will release 50 specific challenges it hopes to address through the events in the coming weeks.

Teams will come together at events around the world to develop applications to solve those problems, says Chelsea Orcutt, an organizer of the iSchool event. The challenges will be grouped in four categories including hardware, software, data visualization, and citizen science.

The iSchool event is open to anyone in the Syracuse community. Orcutt says she expects strong participation from the iSchool and across the Syracuse University campus.

Organizers are hoping for about 75 people. Participants don’t need to organize themselves into teams ahead of time.

Projects produced through the events are judged at the local level, Orcutt says. The most promising among them go on to NASA, which chooses the ultimate winners.

The iSchool is hosting the event for the first time, but NASA began the challenge in 2012. It focuses on addressing challenges related to both space exploration and social need, according to the iSchool.

The 2012 event brought participants together at more than 25 locations around the world and at the International Space Station.

The local event could be a starting point for solving NASA problems, but Orcutt says she wouldn’t be surprised if some teams produced more advanced technology over the course of the two days.

“We do have quite a bit of talent in Syracuse,” she says. “So I imagine people will be coming up with something more complex.”

NASA and the iSchool have been partnering on various projects in recent years, Orcutt adds. The agency has participated in some coursework at the school and the iSchool has been involved in NASA’s open government initiative.

Hosting the challenge is a continuation of that partnership, Orcutt says.

“We want to be able to give real world experience to our students,” she says. “Not just iSchool students. It could be any Syracuse student.”

Working on a project directly related to a challenge presented by NASA will naturally look good on students’ resumes, she notes.

Orcutt says more information will be posted about the challenge in the coming weeks on the iSchool website at http://ischool.syr.edu. The event also has a Twitter feed, which can be found @SpaceAppsSU.

Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com