Teams from San Joaquin County high schools will focus their technological and problem-solving skills on California water issues at the Third Annual H20 Hackathon at the San Joaquin County Office of Education (SJCOE) on Saturday, March 17. Their job is to develop an app that will help California reduce water consumption to protect scarce water supplies and meet statewide conservation goals. Teams will have the day to create the app using the IBM Bluemix development platform. A panel of experts will select the winner of the $5,000 Cal Water Golden Spigot Award.
Organized by the SJCOE and iHub San Joaquin, the H20 Hackathon provides students an opportunity to experience real-world applications of the science, engineering, and other skills they are learning in school. At the same time, the products created by students during the Hackathon could become valuable tools to help California find solutions to some of the problems surrounding issues of water in the state. Major sponsors of the H2O Hackathon include California Water Service, San Joaquin County WorkNet, Collins Electric, the Port of Stockton, the San Joaquin Partnership and A.G. Spanos Companies. More information about the H20 Hackathon and the partnership of local business, government, and other organizations sponsoring the event can be found at www.h2ohackathon.org/. Follow along on social media with #H2OHackathonSJC.
The H2O Hackathon is on Saturday, March 17, at the SJCOE's Wentworth Education Center, 2707 Transworld Drive, Stockton.
Registration begins at 8 a.m. Teams start developing their contest entries at 9 a.m. At 4 p.m., the top-three teams will present their entries to judges and the public.