NASA International Space Apps Challenge Boston 2023 – We did it!

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Congratulations to all participants of the NASA International Space Apps Challenge Boston 2023. We are proud to have hosted our 10th annual hackathon with the past three years being in a virtual setting on 10/7,8. Thanks to the virtual setting this year, 135 people registered from the Greater Boston area and beyond and 13 teams successfully completed projects. The event was officiated by the Consulate General of Japan in Boston this year as well.

Each team showed their style, skill set, and creativity as they solved today’s toughest real-world challenges posed by NASA. The solutions included leveraging data to predict solutions to drought, developing gamification for planetary tourism, 3D terraform mapping, and producing consumer devices that play the music of the cosmos. Participants used data from NASA, hardware such as RaspberryPi, and the Kintone API to create and  visualize their solutions. Please check out https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/2023/locations/boston-ma/?tab=teams  for more details about each fantastic project!

Following each pitch was a judging Q&A session by our three esteemed judges. Team Renaissance Quintet won First Place. They built several original IoT devices that play data translated into music, with the goal to build understanding that space data is more than visual images and provide opportunities for blind individuals to experience space through sound and music. We wish them the best of luck at the Global hackathon judging event. 

We would also like to congratulate our second winner, Team O.D.D.S. for developing a data application solution that would help bring international data into a user friendly tool. We were impressed by all the teams creative presentations and loved to see all the innovative thinking throughout the hackathon.

 

Finally, we’d like to thank our great judges, the Consulate General of Japan in Boston and our sponsors who supported us hosting ISAC Boston 2023 successfully. 

We hope all participants and people involved enjoyed the exciting 2-day journey with us and look forward to seeing everyone again next year!

<NASA International Space Apps Challenge Boston 2023 projects>

https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/2023/locations/boston-ma/?tab=teams

 

<Awards>

1st prize – Renaissance Quintet

2nd prize – O.D.D.S

Best Use of Kintone API – 1st – Renaissance Quintet

Best Use of Kintone API – 2nd – O.D.D.S

Amazon AWS Award – O.D.D.S

Amazon AWS Award – Titan Terraforming

Local Award – Journey to the center of the solar system

 

<ISAC Boston 2023 Judges>

Branden Allen,a Senior Research Scientist at the Harvard College Observatory

Shinji Sato, an IT industry veteran with over three decades of experience in Silicon Valley.

Naotake Murayama, Startup Chief of Figuring it Out, investor, board member, and mentor to founders. 

Sameer Kenkare, Corporate VC and Innovation group at AWS Startups

Mirza Samnani, a robotics engineer at NASA JPL 

 

<Opening remarks>

Kotaro  Suzuki, Consul General of Japan in Boston

Masami Onoda, Director of JAXA Washington D.C. Office, representing the Japanese space agency in the Americas.

 

<Closing remarks>

Branden Allen,aSenior Research Scientist at the Harvard College Observatory

 

<Sponsors>

Platinum sponsor : Amazon AWS

Gold sponsor : Kintone

Titanium Sponsor : Ogawa Coffee USA

Gold Sponsor : Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas)

Silver Sponsor : Toyota

Friend Sponsor : Manabi-ya Boston

Supported by : Consulate-General of Japan in Boston (在ボストン日本国総領事館)

 

<Event website>

NASA International Space Apps Challenge(ISAC)2023(https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/

NASA International Space Apps Challenge(ISAC)BOSTON 2023(www.spaceappsboston.org/

https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/2023/locations/boston-ma/