The International Space Innovation Centre (ISIC) is thrilled to host the International Space Applications Challenge at their site in Harwell, Oxford. This NASA derived two-day technology development event will enable people from around the world to work together to solve challenges relevant to both space exploration and social needs.

The event starts at 9.00am on Saturday 21 April and continues through the night finishing at 4pm on Sunday 22 April. The event is open to anyone who would like to participate – engineers, technologies, scientists, designers, artists, educators, students and entrepreneurs – anyone who has a passion for changing the world!

Barbara Ghinelli, ISIC’s Executive Chair commented, “We were asked by the UK Space Agency (UKSA) to host this event, and jumped at the chance. We are working with NASA, UKSA, MET office and other organisations involved in making this international and unique ‘codeathon’ a successful event.”

“Codeathon-style events are technology development marathons, drawing on the talents and initiative of the best and the brightest software developers, engineers, designers and technologists from around the world who volunteer to respond to real-world problems with solutions that can have immediate impact. A codeathon celebrates software development in its most positive context, using minimal resources and maximum brainpower to create ‘outside- the-box’ solutions in response to fascinating problems. The event has a limit of 80 places and 40 places have already been booked – it is obviously very popular with the thousands of developers and ‘hackers’ in our community”.

Dr David Williams, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, said, “This challenge event provides a great opportunity for our partners in the UK space sector to find novel ways of tackling problems through the use of satellite data sets. Building collaboration links around the world – and into space – will help Britain maintain its leading position as a hub for satellite applications.”

The event is also taking place in San Francisco, Tokyo, Melbourne, Canberra, Jakarta, Exeter; Nairobi, Sao Paulo, Santo Domingo and McMurdo Station, Antarctica. There will be additional events throughout the world and participation by Astronauts on the International Space Station.

If you are interested in the event or would like more information, please visit
http://spaceappschallenge.org/ or email info@isic-space.com