
On Friday July 20, Angelhack ran a great call-for-code session on a gorgeous evening in New York City featuring superb speakers to inspire participation and to seed ideas. The speakers and topics included:
- Challenge Overview – John Walicki, IBM CTO, Global Technology Advocacy with Q&A
- How the American Red Cross responds to natural disaster: A case study: Dr. Rodric Bowman, Regional Disaster Officer, NJ chapter of American Red Cross – included a description of how the Red Cross is organized into 60 regional groups across the US and how disasters are handled depending on impact and size – He also described the autonomy that the various groups have in selecting the software that they use.
- BTS Wireless on the provision of systems that enhance radio coverage in areas where cell phone or radio coverage is either poor or non-existent.
Angelhack hosted and facilitated the meeting, and then the attendees introduced themselves and described their interest in the hackathon. They had varied backgrounds ranging from full stack developers, to data scientists, to innovators. After sharing ideas, and asking many questions, the attendees networked to form teams to tackle the kinds of problems that Dr. Rodric Bowman & BTS wireless described. Examples included managing the Red Cross volunteers and providing situational awareness apps (98% of Red Cross are volunteers!) and creating communication networks quickly after a disaster. In general, after-action reports, identify communication failures as the main cause of problems after a disaster occurs. These failures are wide-ranging and include both technology and human communication failures.
Note that this coming weekend (July 27-29) there is a virtual hackathon to help people get started or to develop their ideas further – the weekend includes a wonderful livestream of tech talks. It also includes sessions about the problems that occur during natural disasters (fires, tsunamis, hurricanes, etc), and that need solutions. See https://callforcode.org/virtual/ for more information including the agenda. These talk are recorded and are available for subsequent viewing – see https://developer.ibm.com/callforcode/techtalks/

From https://callforcode.org/challenge/:
There are IBM Code Patterns for each of six suggested technical solution areas to explore when building a submission for the 2018 Call for Code Challenge. The submission does not have to fit into one of these areas, but they can inspire what you build:
- Financial networks built on blockchain technology can improve the distribution of aid before and after a major disaster.
- Tools that can translate and convert speech to text and vice versa can improve how fast people are warned and assisted.
- Understanding the healthcare needs of populations in advance can improve their resistance to threats to their health.
- Understanding weather and traffic conditions can reduce the number of people affected by mobilizing them effectively.
- Sensor data can be used to predict potential threats from a natural disaster and prompt communities to take action.
- Visual recognition technology can be used to assess an area for risk before building or otherwise modifying the environment.
Angelhack Call for Code Challenge Kickoff gets underway https://t.co/6MlPS0SrvB @CallforCode
— John Walicki (@johnwalicki) July 20, 2018
Our Regional Disaster Officer Rodric Bowman spoke about how the #NJRedCross handles natural disasters at the @CallForCode @ibmcodenyc @AngelHack meetup in NYC tonight. The attending innovators were challenged by IBM and others to use code to make the world a better place. pic.twitter.com/Q6xGMEqDQo
— Red Cr_ss New Jersey (@NJRedCross) July 21, 2018
Attended thought-provoking @AngelHack @CallForCode meetup included @johnwalicki & Dr Rodric Bowman, Regional Disaster Officer @NJRedCross & @ibmcodenyc – See https://t.co/jt3KXb6GWt – Excited 2b mentoring at this weekend's virtual hack – register here https://t.co/GZ2Qh5UbSv pic.twitter.com/rdbLUVWTml
— Susan Malaika (@sumalaika) July 26, 2018
60 hours of contents to help you brainstorm your ideas and kick start your solution. https://t.co/u5avDWE5e7
— Angie Krackeler (@akrackeler) July 26, 2018