NASA International Space Apps Challenge held in Islamabad

The NASA International Space Apps Challenge – a highly competitive hackathon was held at the Institute of Space Technology (IST) in Islamabad from 22nd April to 24th April. The event was inaugurated by Space Apps Curator Mr. Shakeel Shafiq and headed by Dr. Najam Abbas and the Dean of IST, Dr. Qamar ul Islam.

The NASA International Space Apps Challenge is an international competition that invites individuals to create open source solutions through code, visualization, design, or hardware in 48 hours. The purpose of this competition is to create a global impact by introducing ideas and solutions that help in solving problems faced by the world today. The competition provides participants with 26 challenges from the areas of technology and aviation. These problems are modeled around real world problems. To solve these problems, participants are given access to a wide range of data sets, services, and tools from NASA and associated agencies.

The winners of this competition were Team Rah-e-Qamar that provided a Glacier Lake Outburst Floods System. This is a mobile application that gives warnings in case of a glacier lake burst in the northern areas of Pakistan.

There was a tie for the runners up position between the Team Terminal Gigs and Team Space Suit Dev4. Terminal Gigs also provided a solution for lake outbursts but through satellite imagery. Space Suit Dev4, on the other hand, designed a concept of an automated spacesuit.

The Curator of NASA Space Apps Challenge Islamabad is now looking to make the competition national next year by bringing the NASA Space Apps Challenge to Karachi, Lahore, and Peshawar too.