The International Space Apps Challenge is already underway. Developers at the Lagos and Calabar events are brainstorming and deciding which of the challenges they want to take, and which teams they want to work with. There will be prizes for the best teams in each of the 4 technology partner challenges. There is also an opportunity for the overall best teams to visit the NASA Space Centre to watch a live rocket launch
Some of us may be wondering what importance a Space hackathon might hold in a country like Nigeria . Space exploration is seen as the final frontier of technological advancement. Nigeria has barely solved power, transportation and basic infrastructure, amenities problems, so why should we care about space? Is there more to space exploration than just man’s attempt to feed first-world curiosity?
Promotes science education
One of the technology partner challenges is sponsored by Lego Education, under the umbrella of the Space-for-youth-program.
The idea is to get youths interested in space technology by introducing them to robotics using Lego. They will build fully functioning robots, from scratch, that perform simple space-themed tasks. Hopefully the ease and fun they experience in building Lego robots will inspire them to pursue a career in science and technology, an area in which Nigeria is seriously lacking competent manpower.
Another technology partner, Microsoft has a similar challenge that won’t necessarily involve kids, but is primarily targeted at kids. Developers are tasked with developing a game for the Windows Phone platform. The game has to be space-themed and should use real data from the NASA open data initiative.
Your life practically depends on space exploration
A lot of the everyday technologies we have come to take for granted actually depend on, or are byproducts of, space exploration. The mobile phones we connect with, the live football matches we watch every week, the near-accurate weather forecasts we depend on and even water filters. The list is almost endless. And the use of these technologies cascade down to even the lowest of economic classes.
In line with Nigeria’s transformation agenda
If Nigeria is going to be among the top 20 economies by 2020, then it’s never too early to start getting developers and kids – particularly kids – interested in space exploration. We’ve already established that space exploration inspires technologies that are instrumental to our everyday lives. The developers who will be inspired today may play a major role in the future of our technological advancement. And kids who will be inspired today may become the future engineers, physicists, astronauts that will spearhead the Nigerian technology revolution.
The Lagos and Calabar editions of The International Space Apps Challenge are hosted at the iDeaHub by the Alpha5 West Africa, a capacity-building initiative of PetroData Management Services Limited and Alpha Software USA.
