Big data exists in just about everything we use and do. It comes from phones, cars, roads, power lines, waterways, food crates, and innumerable other items you’d never think of as computers.

This data speaks volumes about our collective behavior and society – so let’s use it to do something incredible!

IBM invites developers and data enthusiasts to take a deep dive into real world civic issues using big data and IBM Bluemix’s Analytics for Hadoop service. Analyze one of our curated datasets or bring your own (provided it meets these requirements)! Use Hadoop and your data to create a clickable and interactive data visualization to highlight insights that you’ve found.

Want to compete, but feeling stuck identifying a dataset and relevant question?

We’ve got your back! To lighten the load, we’ve put together some datasets with question options -  in case you’re not sure what data to use or what question to ask. Check them out!

Join the conversation with #Hadoop4good.

Eligibility

This challenge is open to:

  • Individuals (who have reached the age of majority in their jurisdiction of residence at the time of entry); Teams of eligible individuals; Organizations (up to 50 employees)
  • Organizations with over 50 employees may compete for the non-cash Large Organization Recognition Award. 

Government owned entities and participants who are employed by IBM are not eligible. Please see Official Rules for details.

Requirements

What to Create: Participants must create a working, clickable, and interactive data visualization utilizing the Analytics for Hadoop service on IBM Bluemix.

Applications must have been newly created by the participant after October 15, 2014. 

Data Requirements: Your data visualization must analyze one or more datasets included in the curated list of datasets on the Data page OR meet the data size, content, and licensing requirements described on the Data page. The total size of the Datasets analyzed must be between 500MB - 7GB in size.

Supplemental Material: You must submit a demo video (hosted on YouTube, Vimeo, or Youku) that walks through the main functionality of the app via screencast or video. You must also submit a text description and at least one image/screenshot of your working app. Your text description and video should explain the insights gathered from the data and the process and method used in order to reach that insight, including the tools and algorithms used.

Testing: You must make your app available for testing by providing a link to access your web-hosted, public application on the “Website URL” field of the Enter a Submission form..

Availability: Applications must not be publicly available for purchase on an online store or website prior to the announcement of Challenge winners.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$36,000 in prizes

Grand Prize

$20,000 cash

First Runner Up

$10,000 cash

Second Runner Up

$5,000 cash

Fan Favorite

$1,000 cash

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Steven Miller

Steven Miller
IBM

Steve Beier

Steve Beier
IBM

Shekhar Rajvanshy

Shekhar Rajvanshy
IBM

Steven Sit

Steven Sit
IBM

Anjul Bhambri

Anjul Bhambri
Vice President, Big Data, IBM

Bob Hayes, PhD

Bob Hayes, PhD
TCELab

Doug Stephens

Doug Stephens
Retail Prophet

Anand Mahurkar

Anand Mahurkar
Findability Sciences

Jake Porway

Jake Porway
Founder and Executive Director, Datakind

Judging Criteria

  • Quality of Idea
    Includes creativity, originality, and “wow” factor of the idea.
  • Implementation of Idea
    Includes how well the idea was executed by the developer and the extent to which IBM's Analytics for Hadoop service was utilized.
  • Potential Impact
    Includes the relevance and potential social impact of the civic insights gathered.

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