Wired Hack 18.1-4 - The Great IoT Hackathon Kickoff

Any new signups are auto waiting listed. What: Wired Hack 18.1-4 is a four-month long collaborative interdisciplinary Internet of Things (IoT) educational hackathon with two major events--a January kick off and a late-April wrap-up, with bi-weekly mini-events (approximately 7x 2 hour events) for participants. Participants in the hackathon will transform the Rock Hill Technology Incubator into an IoT-connected Technology Incubator, likely the first in the country to fully embrace IoT, and this hackathon (to the best of our knowledge and research) will be the longest running hackathon ever. Participants will have a chance to interact not only with their own IoT devices and hardware, but others as well, leading to exposure of a wide variety of hardware likely to include everything from addressable LED lights to IR blasters. Participants are welcome and encouraged to utilize the various hardware at Winthrop University in a space to be determined in between the events, details on how participants can do this will be shared at the kickoff. The event is open to high school students, York Tech, Winthrop Students, and the general public. Free food and non-alcoholic drinks will be provided throughout all events and mini-events. All participants who attend the kickoff, wrap up and mini events will get to keep up to $120 in IoT devices they build and materials used to build them. We can accept at most 30 participants into the hackathon due to budgetary and space constraints. When/Where: Kick-off event Friday, January 12, at 4 p.m. through Saturday at 4 p.m.Technology Incubator, Suite 500, 157 E. Main Street, Rock Hill, SC 29730 Bi-weekly (every two weeks) mini-events. Dates/times/locations will be determined at the kickoff to ensure compatibility with schedules. Wrap-up event Friday, April 20, at 4 p.m. through Saturday, April 21 at 2 p.m.Technology Incubator, Suite 500, 157 E. Main Street, Rock Hill, SC 29730 How: David Warner (Director of the Technology Incubator) will work with the organizing team to come up with a list of IoT possibilities (IoT project) for the space. For example, an IoT IR blaster to turn on his projector equipment or TV. We will assign participants to teams at the kick-off event, if you have a preference of team members please communicate those to besmera@winthrop.edu, we will try and accommodate them if we can. Teams will voluntarily adopt an IoT project based on their interest. Teams will also brain storm their ideas for further connecting the space through the creation of IoT technology. They will then choose one to fully explore. Teams will spend the night and following day prototyping the hardware and interaction both as a large group of all teams and also individually within their specialized teams. All the teams will be looking at the overall interaction and experience of the space and individual teams at their adopted and proposed IoT device and interaction. Each group will receive an echo and photon starter kit to use for helping to conceptualize and prototype interaction of devices being built over the coming weeks. At the conclusion of the event, teams will present their two projects: one from the IoT projects list, one they came up with. Teams will also submit documentation and a parts list required to make their project happen, which subject to review, will be purchased for use in the mini-events and for participants to keep. There will be various awards announced at the competition for bragging rights but no prize money as participants will eventually keep up to $120 worth of supplies/hardware for attending the kick off, wrap up and mini-events. Details on the types of awards will be announced at the kick off. Following the kick-off event there will be bi-weekly mini-events to come together discuss, learn via presentations, work, etc... The time, location, and dates will be determined at the kick off to eliminate schedule conflicts. All equipment will all stay housed in Winthrop University in a room to be determined. Teams are welcome to come on campus and work on them whenever they like. York Technical College, high school students, and other participants will need to be accompanied by a Winthrop faculty member or Winthrop student for access. Details on logistics will be made available at the kickoff. In May, there will be a wrap up event where teams will work together to install their tech in the incubator and bring the system up and running. Each team will present their contribution to the IoT space and if unable to get it working present their idea, what they did over the 5 months, sharing problems they encountered and solutions to them if any have been found. Journals will be supplied to participants to aid them in documenting their experience. There will again be awards for bragging rights but no prize money is associated with those awards. Standard energy drinks, water, food, etc. will be supplied at both the 24-hour kick-off and the 24-hour wrap-up event as well as all mini-events. Who: The event is open to high school students, York Tech, Winthrop Students, and the general public. We are also interested in having three interior design students participate. Due to space limitations, we will have a maximum of 30 participants. This number is non-negotiable based on both funding and space. Why: It will be a challenging yet fun learning experience for all involved.