ATX Hack for Change
By Robert
This June, BlueChasm went to ATX Hack for Change Hackathon as a sponsor and Project Champion.
As a sponsor, we got to support this great cause which is a part of the National Day of Civic Hacking. This event is about getting great minds together and building something for the civil good. It ranges from mobile apps to websites and even hardware hacks that are meant to help the public.
This hackathon is different than others because unlike regular hackathons, there isn’t a “Grand Prize” to be awarded to the best idea at the end of the event. This hackathon is about building something to better our city and citizens of Austin. Project Champions come with an idea and present it to the crowd of talented programmers and designers at the beginning of the event. Shortly after, teams form and people join whichever project they like the most/are inspired by and they lend their skills to make the project come to life.
At ATX Hack for Change, BlueChasm was selected as a Project Champion. We came up with the idea of a smart sprinkler system that would not only check for the weather conditions but it would also take into consideration the city’s watering restrictions which are dictated by the Water Conservation Department.
With this project we hoped to help both the city and the citizens to save money and conserve water for commercial properties, retail properties, multifamily housing, farmers, greenhouses and single family residential which are required to irrigate often. They would see a big difference in their water consumption which would help them save money and protect the environment.
We had an amazing team of Engineering students and IT professionals that we teamed with. The team had fun building the software and developing on the hardware.
Most of the Project Champions came with their projects which they wanted to develop into full blown services or products. Our project was more of a way to spread the idea of smart watering devices and helping cities with their water conservation. Mainly by developing an API that would make it easier for developers to build water-smart devices.
In the end, the entire team had fun and some even decided to continue working on hardware related hacks. We had an amazing weekend at St.Edwards University and it was inspiring to see so many developers and designers work for a weekend in the spirit of civil good. We are definitely planning to attend next year’s ATX Hack for Change event!
