Random Hacks of Kindness

The Disaster Relief Codejam

When?

Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 6:00 PM
- to -
Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 5:00 PM (PT)

Where?

Hacker Dojo
140 South Whisman Road
Mountain View, CA

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Register

We would like to know if you are coming - please register here

What is Random Hacks of Kindness?

It is an initiative that brings together disaster relief experts and software engineers to work on identifying key challenges to disaster relief, and developing solutions to these critical issues. This Codejam is the first of a series of Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) events that will bring the best and brightest together for a "give camp" to solve real world-problems related to Crisis/Disaster Relief.

Objectives:

This event is the first step in building a global community dedicated to solving disaster relief challenges through technology.

At the RHoK Codejam, programmers will partner with subject matter experts to tackle “real world "problems. These challenges have begun to be defined (see preparation), and will continue to be refined during the event.

The software created at this first event will continue to be developed at subsequent RHoK events, and openly shared with the international community. Our hope is that this software will address some of the serious challenges facing the disaster response community, and evolve in response to their needs.

Background:

In May 2009, the first ever Crisis Camp barcamp was held in Washington, DC. During one of the opening sessions an industry panel including representatives from Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! agreed that some matters supersede competitive concerns. We agreed to cooperate to mobilize our developer communities to create interoperable solutions/code that will have real impact in the field. We have partnered with NASA and The World Bank to make this happen.

Organizers:

Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, NASA and The World Bank.

Preparation:

We want our hacks to make an impact. To that end we need the problem definitions as tight as possible before we begin coding on the 12th. The following is a link (see here) to the preliminary project definitions. Please contribute by adding new ideas and/or refining ones that are already there.

Hotel:

We have block ordered a number of rooms at the Crestview Hotel until November 6th. To make a reservation call 650-966-8848 and book under "Random Hacks of Kindness" group. The rate is $69 a night.

Wednesday September 23, 2009 from 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Scribd
539 Bryant St. (2nd Floor)
San Francisco, California 94107

Hitch-hiking to the Moon: LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite) Model, a novel space mission and approach

Dr. Ennico will provide an overview of the NASA LCROSS mission, a secondary payload that hitch-hiked aboard an Atlas V rocket with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on June 18th, 2009. LCROSS was a fast-paced mission concept that embraced risk and utilized off-the-shelf components, to meet a rigorous budget and schedule profile. Scientifically, LCROSS is looking to confirm the presence or absence of water ice in a permanently shadowed region on the moon. The impact location is a crater on the lunar south pole, where LCROSS will meet its spectacular end on Oct 9th, 2009. The impact is expected to be visible from Hawaii and the western continental US. The speaker will share all the neat things she has learned on this very hands-on and engaging project and how this type of mission concept is an excellent training experience for spacecraft engineers. Dr. Ennico will also touch on how NASA has been expanding the concept of “participatory exploration,” with LCROSS as an example, and looks forward to a lively discussion.

SPEAKER BIO: Dr. Ennico has been a staff scientist at NASA Ames Reasearch Center since September 2000. She volunteered to work on the LCROSS mission in the summer 2006 and has been the LCROSS Payload Scientist and the LCROSS Payload Integration & Test Manager, while supporting other mission work. She is excited to be a part of this exciting phase in NASA’s exploration program and also part of NASA Ames’ approach to innovative & participatory small space missions. After launch, she sits at the science payload operations chair in the LCROSS Mission Operations Center here at NASA Ames.

WHEN: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 from 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
6:00 – 6:30 PM Socializing
6:30 – 7:30 PM Presentation by Dr. Kim Ennico & Discussion
7:30 – 8:00 PM Socializing

WHO: All are welcome!

Please RSVP to Delia.L.Santiago@nasa.gov, snacks and drinks will be served but space is limited.

Unable to attend?
Watch the livestream of this event or sign up to receive an email about future Luna Philosophies.
Website: http://spacehack.org/luna-philosophie

Check out the great exhibit of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge (NGLLC) in Second Life. This Lunar Lander Challenge is organized by the X Prize Foundation, sponsored by Northrop Grumman, and is one of seven challenges that are part of NASA's Centennial Challenges Program. More info on the NGLLC at: http://space.xprize.org/lunar-lander-challenge

The NGLLC in Second Life is located on the Space Island sim, run by the Space Studies Institute (this is located at the corner of NASA's CoLab and eEducation Islands). The builder and scripter is Adluna Dagger.

WHAT: The fourteenth Luna Philosophie will feature Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at SETI Institute.


Photo by gordmckenna

WHEN WILL WE DISCOVER THE EXTRATERRESTRIALS?
The scientific hunt for extraterrestrial intelligence is now into its fifth decade, and we still haven't uncovered a confirmed peep from the cosmos. For that matter, we still don’t know if life – at any level of intelligence – exists beyond Earth. Could this mean that finding aliens, even if they’re out there, is a project for the ages – one that might take centuries or longer?

New technologies for use in the search for extraterrestrial biology suggest that, despite the continued dearth of hard evidence for life elsewhere or signals from other societies, there is good reason to expect that success might not be far off – that within a few decades we might find evidence of sophisticated civilizations.

Why this is so, what contact would tell us, and what such a discovery would mean, are the subject of this talk on the continuing efforts to establish our place in the universe of thinking beings.

WHEN: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
6:00 - 6:30 PM Socializing
6:30 - 7:30 PM Presentation by Seth Shostak & Discussion
7:30 - 8:00 PM Socializing

WHERE: Yahoo! Brickhouse, 500 3rd St, in San Francisco ( http://upcoming.yahoo.com/venue/59350/ )

WHO: All are welcome!

Please RSVP to shanley@yahoo-inc.com, snacks and drinks will be served but space is limited.

For more information on Luna Philosophie, visit: http://colab.arc.nasa.gov/luna

Unable to attend?
Watch the livestream of this event at http://ustream.tv/channel/lp1 !

One of the best examples of public participation in the space program is the Centennial Challenges program. This is a NASA prize program where NASA has put out seven Challenges to date, and offers prizes to the winners. Anyone can participate, and one of the coolest stories is about Peter Homer, who first won the Astronaut Glove Challenge in 2007.

The Astronaut Glove Challenge continues with more interesting challenges to face-- there's now a focus on "dexterity and flexibility". What's really cool is that Volanz Aerospace Inc./Spaceflight America, the external organization that partners with NASA to run the Challenge event, is asking YOU to give feedback on the Astronaut Glove Challenge.

Go to the Astronaut Glove Challenge website and email organizer Alan Hayes. By giving input on the competition rules, you can make the end competition products more useful to NASA. You can also see a diagram of the nifty "finger torque measurement" and see videos of past competitions.

Best of luck to all the Citizen Engineers out there!!

We've launched a new coworking space in Silicon Valley that's open to the public!


Coworking at SuperHappyDevHouse

Located within NASA Ames Research Center, the space aims to create a welcoming community environment where interested individuals can work, meet, discuss, debate, brainstorm and collaborate.

Myself and the rest of the NASA Ames CoLab team are brainstorming on when to have a potential hackday/coworking open house soon so stay tuned to this blog for an announcement!

To keep updated on future NASA CoLab events, subscribe to our feed.