Hack the Midwest played host to 150+ developers and designers in a fierce competition for stacks of cash, tech prizes and coveted sponsorships from Application Programming Interphase (API) sponsors. Thirty teams, with two to five members, many who had not met prior to the Hackathon, were tasked with developing a brand new, novel working web based application or mobile App utilizing the API platforms provided by the technology sponsors or by designing their own platform. The event was held at Boulevard VIP Members club at Sporting Kansas City Stadium; a destination perfectly suited with tons of space, plenty of TV’s projectors and high tech capabilities to support the needs of the Hackathon.
For those of you unfamiliar with a Hackathon, a Hackathon is a fast paced event where teams of developers design and build a software project within a very small timeframe and at Hack The Midwest, that timeframe was a mere 24 hours. Hacking, not to be confused with security protocols is defined as: “A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and stretching their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary.”
Clearly attendees and teams at the event were passionate about exploring programming ideas as over 80% of the hackers had not slept in 24 hours or gone home, but the often repeated sentiment of the morning during presentations was “you can get a heck of a lot done in 24 hours with no interruptions!”
The 30 teams had three minutes to Demo the web or app program to the panel of judges (90 minutes for 30 presentations). Presentations ranged from LED light pads that directed LED lighting pannels to social networking apps to emergency management ‘I am safe’ notification tools. Considering every one of the projects presented did not exist 24 hours prior….100% of all the apps, programs and hacks functioned perfectly during each 3 minute demo; only two presenters had to present again at the end of the presentation competition due to software glitches. Judging was based on the following criteria: completeness, user interphase, originality & usefulness. Read about the team of high profile judges by clicking here.
Winning Teams
Tech Award: CrowdArmor, simple application that lets users know if their social accounts have been hacked by others.
Most Entertaining: Sobeerity, track specialty beers you want to drink, earn badges and most importantly prevents users from sending text or making calls to a list of not to call individuals eg. ex-girlfriend or Mom after too many drinks have been consumed.
Best in Class/ Show: StickerStoryBook, using stickers to tell any story you want, interactively on desktop & devices.
Sponsors / API Award Winners
AlchemyAPI: Sherlock
Context.io: Bark.im
Twillo: Ufet.ch
Iron.io: HalfEmpty?
Mashhery: MooD
OpenTalk: Sherlock
SendGrid: DisasterReliefHub App
Tokbox: CallMeMaybe?
Hack the Midwest featured an in depth guest blog post on the Kansas City Internet Professionals (KCITP) website about “one programmer’s experience at Hack the Midwest.” For those interested in participating in a future hackathon, this post gives a comprehensive perspective on what the experience is like for attendees and how it can improve one’s programming and collaboration skills.
Hackathons are an important aspect of the startup and programming community in Kansas City. These products or novel concepts developed in 24 hours could be the next revolutionary problem solving tool implemented in a local or national organization, making a significant impact to the local economy. These hacks may not have explored every aspect of launching as a viable business in 24 hours, but are a sound springboard for future products and services for consumers and industry alike, even making a potential, worldwide impact.
Presentations
Call me Maybe
App idea, email app, best way could help a user getting a call through phone for emails that are critical/ want read
Voice Notice can be your favorite celeb (Carley Ray Jepson), set up notification,
Bark.im
wanted a way to get emails via text message, updates/ alerts when they are important
Flexible, customizable, multitude of AP and you contrl what is sent to your phone, etc.
Sobeerity
Create a Google app that combined that achievement base (world beer tour) and tracking the beer you drink, sharing with friends. Self-preservation feature: block you from posting to Social networks or ‘texting the ex’ if you have logged into many drinks on the app.
LeDraw
LED light array that will translate what is written on a white board to LED images, built the board and interphase overnight
Signal Flare
Reach out to all your family/ friends by sending a txt message to your text tree, did a live demo on the spot with a guest and
Team woofwoof.com to try out demo
Sticker Story Book
App that lets kids create new story books and they own unique stories by dragging icons (stickers)
Young family team and oldest individual at the hackathon, the presentor’s mom created all the sticker illistruations
Jets.io
Cheat app for sending programmers code
WARMUP
Way to organize the tailgates and help people find each other at events or during sporting events (sporting KC media team)
Building Credits feature, can redeem credits for merchandise at sporting (or other athletic events)
Twillo TwoFactor Auth
Twillio programming for user application functions. Voice authentication (1x user password)
uFetch
Website/ App & text functions, ways for office staff to be “in or out” for people running to get food
Can allow your office staff or people at an event to set up campaigns like “who’s in for sushi for lunch?”
OnBlast
Sports stats for the sports fan who can’t watch sports all the time so sports fantaics can compare scores, stats, players, etc.
Interactive can post stats out to Text & SM, etc. be the most knowledgeable fan “while cheating on getting the info”
Crowd Armor
Crowdsource online security, crowd sourcing online security alert you if your online accounts have been hijacked,
RealTime, scans all your previous tweets (or SM), and can help monitor account in real time to prevent hacking of SM accounts
Remove the tweet if the account is hacked….took under 30 seconds to identify the hacked account or mis-tweet and remove
Hangout Helper
You are with friends, have a stressful week and you and your buddies want to hang out.
Proximity based, way to plan your events, hangouts, etc.
FoneFlare
Only random team at hack the Midwest, all 5 individuals have never met
Way for people to ask for help, pairing individuals in need with helpers (Twillio API)
Crowd Source secondary responder systems (doesn’t impair 1st response routs)
Keep Me Dry
Text notifications for weather notices and alerts, what the weather is going to be for the day, help you plan your day.
We’ll let you know when the weather calls for an umbrella, your rain jacket, snow boats, leaving early for work (it can get slick out there!), wearing sunblock (107 degrees, seriously?), and when long sleeves just won’t cut it.
Phase Craze
Multiplayer game, based on Google Play services (all created in house), phrase guessing game
Grabbing phrases off the Internet and send grid for email, all real time play online and on the phone.
Like “wheel of fortune” for multiple online users to play against one another online
e-GoAway
random excuses for you to reply when you don’t want to be in a certain social situation
Delivery options to “give you the out” for whatever situation you don’t want to be in…directed to email, text or online
Eg. “my eyes were eaten by a shark or my pet rock lost his leg” and I can’t get together
Perfect Pet 4 Me
Helping you choose the perfect pet for yourself and giving you ideas of what pet is best suited for your own needs/ lifestyle
Disaster Relief Hub
Intouch solutions team, notifications to send to friends and family that “you are safe” and send notifications out via mobile/ email, etc. Keeps track of users internally. Chat program and can create a hangout and submit a video of yourself as well.
311 for All
Local Non-emergency numbers to send alert notices via voice and text messages
eg. couch in the road, please remove…
fabnabbit.com
Better alternative for buyers and sellers, web ap that connects consumers to the products services they are looking for
Crowd sourcing buying/ selling alternative to Groupon and at a discounted rate.
Regards from Us
Barcley Team, inspiration was the make a wish foundation
Beefed up e-card application, way for you to send correspondence online and personalize greetings
Also can do a voicemail greeting/ recording and send out via txt, SMS or email
Sherlock
Question and answer game, like Jeprody online for multiple players
Hacky App
Mobil targeted website, give you the option of signing in to all SM accounts via Google and listen to all your music online
Half Empty?
An app that can be used to hire programmers and connect
Ranking tweets as positive/ negative and graphical plot
Eg. ranking opinion on specific twitter topics
CloudGive
App, simplify setting up text and info campaigns for not for profits, can text a keyword and $$ amount for funding/ donation
Guides customers through the process, registration page, sending confirmation and processing the credit cards
Scavenger Scram
Online scavenger hunt, completely customizable for you to set up scavenger hunts online.
Quickly start a game, Send details to your friends, Capture photos based on clues, Win!
CAPPO
Make Sporting the greatest club on earth, Italian for “yell leader”
Give fans the words to the song and you can text the “yell leader” what chant you want to hear from the yell leader
Gives fans the history of sons and how they originated
Sending out alerts using Twillio
Text Aisle
Can’t find an employee to help you at Home Depot, Wal Mart or etc.
Allows you to send a simple text of a product eg. extension cord, then receive a text back…isle 2, bay 5 (816-920-0056)
80% of associates time at home depot is spent directing people to places or answering questions of where products are at
20x times per day per associate “where is the bathroom” could send a text to shopper’s phone vs. having to answer questions.
MooD
Bring to life the “mood” or sentiment represented via mood colors of specific topics and trending topics
Quick way to see positive about the topics