The NASA Space Apps Challenge, “the biggest hackathon in the universe”, is coming to Orlando for its third year in a row. To learn more about this event, Code Hangar sat down with Holly Akers, one of the event’s primary organizers. We set out to get her insights into what makes a hackathon successful and what makes the Space Apps Challenge unique. The Venue A hackathon is a gathering, and every gathering needs a good place to gather. The Space Apps Challenge will be held in the Guidewell Innovation Center, located down in the medical technology sector of Lake...
I led a workshop recently on product development at an event in Orlando, FL called Make Day. The purpose of the event was to bring members of the community together to learn techniques in designing and building with a team, while also working toward the common purpose of building solutions to make Orlando the best city for women in tech. This post will include selected slides from my presentation as well as my own commentary. Click here to view the full presentation. My workshop was one of two that day, following the Design Ideation Workshop (slides here). So, I focused...
Orlando Lady Developers has announced an upcoming 'Make Day', an exciting two-part workshop in which coders and creators will develop their abilities in design, ideation and product development while contributing to solutions that help women achieve their goals in the software and technology industry. The situation is challenging; by 2020 there will be 1.4 million available jobs in computing-related fields, but the United States is on pace to fill only 29 percent of them with computer science graduates. Countless studies have shown the importance and benefits to approaching problems with diverse teams, yet at current rates only 3 percent...
Girls Who Code is coming to Orlando this summer!!! As soon as it was announced at WeVenture’s Renegades & Rebels: Women and Tech event last November, I knew I had to be involved. Girls Who Code is super awesome, nationally recognized program that brings a new model for computer science education to middle school and high school girls across the country and this summer, two Girls Who Code camps will provide 40 girls in Orlando hands-on experience in computing concepts, programming fundamentals, exposure to the tech industry, and mentorship from women working in technology. We are just weeks away...
On Saturday January 16, 2016 Code for Orlando joined Orlando Sentinel to host the Tabs on Tallahassee Hackathon at Canvs coworking space in downtown Orlando. After 6 months of development, the Orlando Sentinal unveiled a new API for the FL Legislature. The API, which returns data about the Florida House and Senate, includes: legislator voting history, bill lists by location affected, bill lists by topic, bill lists by search query, bill progress and legislator biographies. The API also ties legislators to their relevant geographic areas. The Tabs on Tallahassee Hackathon opened this API up to local developers, designers and tech-savvy...