06 Sep SmartSA Datathon: Get Involved!
Calling all data scientists, developers, civic technologists, designers, and entrepreneurs! We would love for you to participate in our upcoming SmartSA Datathon Competition, Oct. 19-21st!
Tomorrow we will open the datasets to the public to review before our Q&A Event Sept. 14th! So be sure to register for the Q&A! Then review the sets on our webpage and come up with awesome questions for our data experts. They’re ready to answer any and all questions you may have.
For a peek at which datasets will be released, you can view the Data Catalogue here.
What Datathon Is….
SmartSA partners—VIA, CPS Energy, SAWS, SARA, and the City of San Antonio, and CivTechSA joined forces to release datasets to the public. As another way to foster smart city innovation and build a more connected, inclusive, and resilient San Antonio.
Not only are they making these data sets public, but they are looking for talented data scientists, developers, civic technologists, designers, etc. to help identify opportunities to improve services across three challenge areas: Transportation, Access to Services, Sustainability.
Before the main event, we will be hosting a Q&A Event Sept. 14th at Geekdom’s 8th floor. Where data experts will be present to answer questions about the datasets, why the challenge areas were chosen, and expectations from potential competitors.
Similar to a Techstars Startup Weekend, the competition will run Friday Oct. 19th through Sunday Oct. 21st. And end with a pitch presentation to a SmartSA panel of judges. Mentors will be peppered in throughout the weekend to assist the finalists with any additional questions or help with presentations before the final Pitch Event on Sunday.
Prizes
$15,000 Most Comprehensive
- Uses data from multiple Smart SA partners
- Easy to use dashboard/portal
- Continuous on-going analytics
- For public use/engagement
$2,500 Most Insightful
- Most informative analytics/predictive modeling with data from
one or more SmartSA partners
$2,500 Most Compelling
- Most impactful/engaging dashboard or data visualization
*In addition to prize money, there will be the opportunity to demonstrate your capabilities to the SmartSA partners with the potential for talent scouting!!!
How to Participate
1) Register for the Q&A Event to get all of your questions answered and to look for potential teammates. (If you don’t already have some).
2) Look over the the datasets and identify which sets you’d like to use and which challenge area(s) you’d like to focus on. Then submit your team proposal before the due date: Oct. 8th.
3) Don’t wait for the competition weekend to work on your ideas! Get started as soon as possible because the competition will be fierce!
We want teams (2-6 people per team) to submit proposals by Oct. 8th to be considered for our awesome Datathon Competition! And for the chance to win $15,000!!!
The Finalists will be selected by Oct. 10th! Then notified via email to participate in the Datathon Competition. So be sure to get your team formed and your proposal submitted ASAP!
Sponsors
If you have any questions or would like to be a sponsor for the Datathon, don’t hesitate to reach out: civtechsa@geekdom.com!
Image Source: Silicon Angle