SkyWatch is proud to announce the return of the NASA International Space Apps Challenge to the Waterloo Region, from April 22-24th. The hackathon attracts Waterloo’s top tech and non-technical talent—developers, makers, citizen scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs—who work non-stop for 48 hours to address NASA-designed challenges. Waterloo joins close to 200 other cities hosting their own Space Apps Challenges that weekend, for an estimated total of 15,000 global participants, making it the largest hackathon in the Universe. Last year, more than 14,000 hackers participated in 138 cities.

Two winning solutions from the Waterloo challenge will move on to compete with other winners from across the globe, to be judged by the NASA International Space Apps Challenge team. This year’s host, SkyWatch, was an international winner in 2014. As an international winner, the team got the opportunity to meet NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and were guests of NASA at the Orion spacecraft’s first test launch, a vehicle which will be taking the first humans to Mars. The event was largely responsible for their ascent, now a growing space startup based in Waterloo.

Unique to Waterloo participants, this year’s event will include the unveiling of Canada’s first ever accelerator focused on space startups. The Canadian space industry has discussed creating such a program for over a decade now, and in 2016 it will become a reality, right in the Waterloo district. SkyWatch, alongside the Canadian Space Commerce Association will reveal more details at the event on April 24th.

More info: www.skywatch.co/spaceapps

Friday, April 22

17:30 EST - Registration Opens

19:00 EST - Opening Remarks

19:20 EST - Review Challenges, Prizes, and Rules

19:40 EST - Kickoff Keynote

20:00 EST - Form and Register Teams // Start Hacking!

Doors are open all night.

Saturday, April 23

08:30 EST - Breakfast is Served

13:00 EST - Lunch is Served

18:00 EST - Webcasted Keynote from Astronaut Doug Wheelock

19:00 EST - Dinner is Served

Doors are open all night.

Sunday, April 24

08:30 EST - Breakfast is Served

10:00 EST - Presentation Lineup is Established

11:00 EST - Presentation Run-Throughs Begin

12:30 EST - Lunch is Served

14:00 EST - Remarks by Mayor Barry Vrbanovic

14:15 EST - Presentation Begin

15:15 EST - Break

15:30 EST - Presentations Resume

16:30 EST - Presentations Conclude & Dinner is Served

17:30 EST - Space Accelerator Announcement

17:50 EST - 2016 NASA Space Apps Waterloo Winners Announced

19:00 EST - Doors Close