AT&T EduTech Hackathon: 12 edtech projects, 5 finalists

Creating applications that can impact education was the focus of this weekend’s AT&T EduTech Hackathon, where twelve projects competed for semi-finalist recognition for two sets of cash prizes and services that are intended to help those projects live.

More than 60 developers worked on projects this weekend, organized by AT&T and Technically Philly with Jarvus Innovations and Temple’s Urban Apps and Maps Studio. Many of the projects were a follow-up to February’s TechCamp and five winners will present at the fourth Switch demo event during Philly Tech Week Presented by AT&T. Three student prizes will also be awarded at an Apps and Maps open house on April 22.

The five groups that will demo at Switch on April 23 (competing for $5,000 Grand Prize):

• Solar Sunflower
• Fantasy-Ed
• Safest Way
• STEM Everywhere
• Temple MESA: PHA Tutoring Application

And the three groups that will compete for separate $5,000 Student prizes:

• Fantasy-Ed
• Temple MESA: PHA Tutoring Application
• Show of Hands

The full list of competing projects and their descriptions:

• Fantasy-Ed – Fantasy Ed is a gamification of education app that uses fantasy football’s point system, but with an educational spin. Students are put in teams of four and face off weekly for wins and losses, ultimately a championship.
• Solar Sunflower – Arduino-powered sensor system for green playgrounds displaying real-time data on the web.
• Safest Way – Find the safest way to walk to school.
• STEM Everywhere – STEMEverywhere is a one-stop shop for free resources for teachers and students. Our goal is to increase interest in STEM. Among underrepresented minorities and girls. We are building a mobile-friendly website. We will also build a mobile app.
• Summer School Philly – After school program using Wikidelphia.
• Temple T-Dap – The purpose of our application is to increase students and teachers engagement with after-school activities. The application will accomplish this goal by giving students the awareness and information to find and sign-up for after-school activities. Teachers will also be given the ability to create events and see who will be attending the event.
• Happy School – Danger alert is a mobile application that puts safety in the hands of students to alert stakeholders (peers, faculty, staff, parents and law enforcement) of serious threats to the community
• Temple MESA: PHA Tutoring Application – An app that encourages a community students around problem sets while guiding students towards tutors on specific subjects.
• Streets of Philly – Geolocation-based application providing audio tours of Philadelphia to educate people about the history of Philadelphia.
• Roll Call – Using chips in student IDs to monitor attendance of students and keep data on when students get to school and where they go.
• Where is My Bus? – An app that shows parents where their kid’s bus is at as well as helping to track the location of the kid once they have entered the bus.
• Show of Hands – A portal for students and teachers that offers a slew of tools to be used in the classroom. Basic features of this app include:

Read more from the AT&T Developer blog. Check out photos here.