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Welcome To The Hack The Universe Challenge wiki!

• Hackathon Project Repositories
• Video demonstrations of Hack The Universe projects
• Schedule of Events
• Code of Conduct

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Held on November 7th to 8th, 2014 at the American Museum of Natural History, the Hack The Universe challenge was a 24 hour solution-building event produced by AMNH's BridgeUP: STEM, an educational initiative focused on the intersection of computer science and science with an after-school program for high school girls and underrepresented middle schoolers and the awarding of annual fellowships to women scientists to pursue their research at the museum.

The participants of Hack The Universe posing beneath the Hayden Planetarium

29 project teams built 29 working prototypes, working with the museum's Digital Universe dataset to create new visualizations, helping to advance astronomy and astrophysics and working for the benefit of museums, galleries, libraries, and cultural institutions around the world (OpenGLAM). Video demonstrations of Hack The Universe projects are available to view on YouTube!

We hope that this challenge wiki will act as a touchstone for other institutions and serve as a guiding vision for the future of astronomy, astrophysics, and of museums. Within this wiki's pages you will find descriptions of challenges the Department of Astrophysics faces, as well as links to the open source solutions that were created by participants. Just check out each of the challenges for more detail!

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(Original Event Text)

AMNH presents Hack the Universe, the launch of BridgeUP: STEM

When:  November 7 - 8, 2014
Time:  6pm Friday – 9pm Saturday
Location:  Hall of the Universe, American Museum of Natural History
Theme:  Astrophysics and the Digital Universe

AMNH is hosting its first-ever hackathon along with an afternoon of lightning talks and hands-on activities focused on the intersection of computer science and astrophysics. Dubbed "Hack the Universe," this is the launch event of BridgeUP: STEM, a new educational program focused on computer science for science and funded by a generous grant from the Helen Gurley Brown Trust. The event will invite the public to build applications for the Digital Universe data set starting Friday evening and working overnight. Demos will be part of a cocktail reception at the conclusion of the event on Saturday evening. Saturday afternoon will also feature lighting talks and hands-on activities for youth to introduce them to the applications of computer science and data visualization in the study of the stars.

BridgeUP: STEM is a new initiative focused on computer science in science at AMNH. Funded by a generous grant from the Helen Gurley Brown Revocable Trust, BridgeUP: STEM will launch a portfolio of programs spanning after-school education, public programming, post-baccalaureate fellowships, and teacher professional development. Hack the Universe is the first event for BridgeUP: STEM, showcasing the crucial role computer science plays in understanding our universe.

In January, we'll launch our Brown Scholars program, a 2-year after-school intensive for 9th and 10th grade girls. In 2015 we'll also welcome our first class of Helen Fellows, post-baccalaureate research and teaching fellowships for women with computer science and computational science degrees, and kick off our middle-school coding club. BridgeUP: STEM is dedicated to increasing the diversity of the computer science talent pipeline and giving underrepresented students access to the skills and tools required for the 21st Century.