Big Step for Open Data | hack/reduce

"An event was quietly executed at hack/reduce last week and I’m pumped about its success. We organized the first-ever Department of Defense (DoD) hackathon. And there was a lot on the line. With a spotlight on this hackathon, it was really a testbed that would impact the prospects for future collaboration between the DoD and the innovation community. The Boston innovation community knocked the ball out of the park and I believe this is a big step in the right direction for the open data movement. We had more than 100 hackers arrive on Friday evening to kick-off the hackathon. 12 teams were formed, the DoD combat rations data sets were released and hacking began. Twenty-four hours later, 12 applications were conceived and built. The team presentations were all impressive and the DoD representatives at the event were blown away by the creative and innovative apps. They saw potential in each of them and I encourage you to find out more about each DoD hackathon project here on challenge.gov by clicking here. There were first, second and third place prizes – third place was a Google Glass app called FuelTrak, second place was a web app called Rations Optimizer and first place was a mobile app. The first place winner of this hackathon went beyond the call of duty. The UMass Lowell students assembled a unique team: three computer science majors and a nutritional science major who had also served in the military and spent time in a combat zone. They developed the MARTEE (Mobile Access Rations Tracking & Energy Expenditure) mobile app which is a personalized nutrition training tool that can be used stateside to educate soldiers before going into the field. The app includes full nutritional data on all combat rations and the data is personalized to the soldier’s height and weight as well as their activities. Click here to see screen shots. Kudos to UMASS Lowell team members Justin Mayhew, Jeremy Poulin, Mike Stowell, and Nick Ver Voort! Michael Brown from the US Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (NSDREC) here in Massachusetts kicked off this effort just a few months ago. He wanted to run a hackathon to find a way for soldiers in combat to better understand the nutritional value of their combat rations. There is a real need for soldiers to work at their peak condition when in the field – nutrition plays a key role here and knowledge is power. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Mass Tech Collaborative, Mass Development and mobile innovator Kinvey stepped up to the plate as sponsors to make this happen. Special thanks to Mike Brown, our executive director Adrienne Cochrane, our operations chief Andrew Laprade, all the participating hackers and of course our sponsors for making this event a tremendous success. Well done Boston!"