HACKATHON

Calling all food, agriculture, and technology innovators and entrepreneurs from across the region for a chance to win prizes of up to $5000 and build an innovative solution in two and half fun and productivity-filled days. Join us for the Hack-griculture Hackathon at James H. M. Henderson Hall at Tuskegee University the evening of February 9th, then all day February 10-11!

As a fun and interesting new aspect of the George Washington Carver Lecture Series held here on campus, we are looking for passionate technologists, growers, and innovators to come together, define problems, pitch ideas, create teams, and build an agriculture or food related application in 48 hours. Come with an idea to pitch or join others at the event to help them make their idea a reality.

REGISTER!!!

CLICK HERE to register!!!

The competition will take place at James H. M. Henderson Hall at Tuskegee University, starting on February 9th at 6:00 p.m. with an opening session, lightening idea presentations, and a team formation session. Teams will come together again all-day February 10th and the first half of February 11th to develop their tech solutions and pitch decks. Teams will receive pitch advice and mentoring from industry experts throughout the event. On the afternoon of February 11th, teams will then pitch their idea and present their application to a panel of industry expert judges for a chance to win several prizes that will help develop your product! This is your chance to be a part of something big in food and agriculture. The final pitch event is free and is open to the public.

Register to participate. Be sure to register by February 2, 2018

**Note: Participants must attend the entire time!

**Note: If there’s anything else you need to be able to participate, especially in regards to disability, accommodation requests should be sent to agriculture@tuskegee.edu no later than 14 days before any scheduled event!

SCHEDULE

Day 1 (Friday, February 9):

5:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. – Early Registration/Sign-in at the Henderson Hall Lobby
6:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. – Registration at Henderson Hall
6:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. – Opening Remarks with refreshments
7:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. – Idea/pitch time for those with existing ideas
7:30 p.m. - 8:15 p.m. – Eat, mingle and form teams
8:15 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. – Teams hack, work, and register their teams and team names

Day 2 (Saturday, February 10):

8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. – Breakfast
9:00 a.m. - 9: 15 a.m. – Tools and Data Presentation
9:15 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. – Hacking and working
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. – Lunch
1:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. – Hacking and working
6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. – Dinner
7:30 p.m. - 10 p.m. – Hacking, working and practice pitches!

Day 3 (Sunday, February 11):

8:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. – Breakfast
9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. – Final touches on presentations
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. – Lunch
1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. – Turn in presentations
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 - Final competition and presentations

TOPICS FOR INSPIRATION

You are not limited to working on any particular products/technology, but the idea is to create something to help alleviate any problems facing the agricultural world today. You can join others at the event and are not required to come to the hackathon with an idea in mind.

We encourage teams to present any food or agricultural related concepts in order to rise to the challenge for the competition.

RULES

Official Event Rules

Open and Collaborative Event: Each team participant has freely chosen to join with the others to address a challenge either presented at the event by event leaders or by other participants who presented a challenge or idea. Please do not bring or share proprietary information, private data, intellectual property and/or trade secrets at the event, unless it is your intention to make such material property of this team. None of the team members’ employers, enterprises, sponsoring organizations, or affiliates have a claim to the intellectual property created during this event. The host organizations (Hack-griculture, Tuskegee University) and sponsors also have no claim on the intellectual property. The intellectual property created during this event belongs to each team member as an individual, on an equally shared basis. It is up to the team members to collectively decide what to do with it going forward.

Teams Form Ad Hoc: This is an inclusive event, with an objective of bridging the worlds of Ag, Food, Sustainability, and Tech. Therefore, our expectation is that participants come to the event to meet new people and to subsequently collaborate with them. While pre-formed teams are allowed, we would prefer and encourage the creation of new teams at the event. We explicitly forbid; 1.) the use of pre-written code which is purpose built for the event, 2.) product advertisement/promotion disguised as participation and 3.) the use of intellectual property, private databases, or technology that are not reasonably available to all of the other teams. If the Hack-griculture organizing team determines that any team is in violation of these three points, that team will not be eligible to win any of the event’s titles or prizes.

Deliverables: The idea is to actually write working software during the event. THE SOFTWARE DELIVERABLE DOES NOT NEED TO BE A MOBILE APP. You could build an api, a website, or even a program that uses tech and/or open data to make it more efficient. Teams are strongly encouraged to attempt to build and demonstrate the key component(s) of their concept during the event’s timeframe. Prototypes, wireframes, and websites can be used to supplement and show a more full picture of your concept. Judges, especially our technical judges, will be asked to gauge the quality, technical merit, and completeness of the software/product being presented. We strongly encourage teams to host their software on a virtual machine during judging (shown to audience via IP Address or URL). If a presentation is to be hosted on a local machine, then that machine needs to be shown to the Hack-griculture team no later than 10:00 a.m. February 10th. This is to determine how to connect them to the AV system later the next day. Teams that are using a local machine will be required to go first. A pdf version of your presentation must be submitted to agriculture@tuskegee.edu no later than 2:00 PM on February 11th (this is required regardless of whether the app is hosted virtually or locally). Teams will be required to practice their pitches between 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 PM on October February 11th in front of the Hack-griculture organizing team. We will provide a sign-up sheet for your practice pitch at the event. Out of fairness to all, these deadlines will be strictly enforced. Teams that do not meet them will not qualify for titles or prizes.

All questions, comments and concerns can be directed to agriculture@tuskegee.edu

More info:

Team Sign Up (this will be required once you have established your team at the event)
Judging Rubric (this will be provided to judges to help them judge the presentations fairly and with the same criteria for all teams)

All items are subject to change without notice up to the beginning of the event. Any changes made after the start of the event will be clearly communicated to all participants. If you have questions, comments or concerns please email agriculture@tuskegee.edu