October 23, 2018
AIT Press Release #: PR-1837
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) collaborated with the National Space Organization, Chunghwa Telecom, Taipei City Government, the National Taiwan Normal University, the Taiwan Design Center, and the American Innovation Center to host the 2018 NASA Space Apps Challenge Hackathon in Taiwan from October 19-21. This year’s theme was “Space and Earth.” At the close of the 48-hour event, Team Light Wonder won the first place cash award of NT$80,000.
During the closing ceremony, AIT Director Brent Christensen said: “I want to offer my sincere thanks to everyone who developed solutions, and congratulate all of you for completing a tremendous 48-hour hackathon. It is amazing that you have proposed creative solutions in such a short time to address the most pressing and tricky challenges the world is facing.”
The NASA International Space Apps Challenge is an international hackathon. This year marked the 6th year of the NASA International Space Apps Challenge, with 211 cities around the world jointly hosting a NASA hackathon event. This was the second time that Taipei joined the NASA Hackathon with 55 teams and 241 participants – high school and college students, coders, scientists, makers, and hacking enthusiasts. “Light Wonder,” Taipei’s first place team, along with second place team “Tabby Rangers,” will compete for the global grand prize, a chance to visit the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In 2017, the global winner for “Best Mission Concept” was “Space Bar,” a team from Taiwan.
In addition to the six co-sponsors, Taipei’s 2018 NASA Space Apps Challenge hackathon partners include IBM Taiwan, the Institute for Information Industry, iThome, Facebook, the Foundation for Women’s Rights Promotion and Development, Micron, Microsoft Taiwan, the Science Communication Study and Development Center of Shih-Hsin University, and WinGlobal Technology.
2018 Taipei NASA Hackathon Awards included the following:
Grand Prize Awards:
1st place: NT$80,000
2nd place: NT$60,000
3rd place: NT$40,000
“Innovation Award”: NT$20,000
Special Awards:
- “Technology Innovation Award” from the Institute for Information Industry: NT$20,000
- “Earth Care Award” from WinGlobal Technology: NT$20,000
- “Universe Care Award” from WinGlobal Technology: NT$20,000
- The Foundation for Women’s Rights Promotion and Development: NT$10,000 (Criteria: There should be (1) at least one female participant on the team, and (2) the project has to have gender awareness.)
- IBM Taiwan: two internship opportunities (To qualify for the award, the team has to have used an IBM platform.)
- Microsoft Taiwan: two Surface Pro computers
- “AIC Special Design Award” from the American Innovation Center: NT$10,000
The Winning Teams of the 2018 Taipei NASA Hackathon
- First Place: “Light Wonder” (Huang Yi Chieh, Yeh Shu Yung, Pan Jian Hong, Molly Kang, Eric Hsu)
- Second Place: “Tabby Rangers” (Ke Cheng En, Joey Yang, Lu Ming Jen, Chi Hsi Yun, Lin Yu Cheng)
- Third Place: “IES Coders” (Nguyen Cong Nghia , Shyu Chase Jhih Huang, Chien, Yu-Hsiang, Su Jun, Utpal Kumar)
- Innovation Award: “Centauri Dreams” (Liao Ying, Shih En, Lee Hui Yu, Chen Yung Hua, Wu Yu Shuo)
More information is available at: https://2018.spaceappschallenge.org/locations/taipei
