YYC Hacks 2024 Series
YYC Hacks 2024 Logo

Chinook Blast

Join YYCHacks
for a weekend of
innovation and
collaboration
Location
Bow Valley College
(North Campus)
Date
Feb 2-4, 2024
Hackers Attending
150

Change the way the world views Calgary!

Calgary is a growing city in Canada’s fastest growing province, and that presents both challenges and opportunities for newcomers and visitors alike to enjoy everything the city has to offer.

The goal of this hackathon is to promote software development as a tool to make Calgary more accessible to newcomers and visitors, by creating engaging and innovative approaches to both immigration and tourism. Participants of all coding abilities will learn, network, and be a part of a community that can change how newcomers and visitors connect with our beautiful city.

Problem Statement

How can we use technology to make Calgary more accessible to visitors and newcomers?

MediaYYCHacks in the News

YYC Hacks 2024 Hackathon winner gives newcomers info right after they land in Calgary
Livewire Calgary

YYC Hacks 2024 Hackathon winner gives newcomers info right after they land in Calgary

Chinook City puts a twist on Calgary winter city event strategy to win hackathon
Livewire Calgary

Chinook City puts a twist on Calgary winter city event strategy to win hackathon

The anatomy of a Calgary hackathon: Way more ’emotional and psychological’ than one expects
Livewire Calgary

The anatomy of a Calgary hackathon: Way more ’emotional and psychological’ than one expects

Calgary hackathon focused on building a winter city, sells out
Livewire Calgary

Calgary hackathon focused on building a winter city, sells out

WatchSpecial moments caught on camera

WINNERSThe Top Dogs

First Place:

Advil Buddies

  • Marybeth Sato
  • Trisha Aquino
  • Suhee Kim
  • Donguk Oh
  • Raymond Santos
  • Malek Mansour
  • Yassine Ghannay
  • Ye Phone Kyaw
  • Denis Pechenkin

Second Place:

Curated Calgary

  • Jocelyn Amaya
  • Ryan M Wiebe
  • Ahmed Yagoub
  • Yossef Triki
  • Sahar Shah Baigzada
  • Samuel Surulere
  • Christy Clement
  • Aleksandr Barsukov
  • Bryce Brandford

Third Place:

Enhance YYC

  • Harsingh Sekhon
  • Emmanuel Mercado
  • Tobias Tomana
  • Joshua Gonzales
  • Sahib Singh
  • Julie Gunawan

SpeakersMeet the Speakers

Jyoti Gondek

Jyoti Gondek

Mayor of Calgary

Jyoti Gondek served as city councillor for Ward 3 from 2017 to 2021. She holds a Ph.D. in urban sociology, and an M.A. in organizational sociology.

Mayor Gondek’s professional background includes leading the Westman Centre for Real Estate Studies at the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business where she examined the challenges facing Calgary’s commercial sector as property values in the core plummeted. She also ran a successful consulting practice for 12 years helping clients in the energy and city-building sectors evolve their business models to fit a changing regulatory and economic environment.

Throughout her career, Mayor Gondek has been known to be a driven community builder and diversity champion who understands the power of cross-sector partnerships where business, social organizations, and educational institutions are connected to local governments to better serve the people. She is honoured to serve Calgarians as Mayor.

Serene Yew

Serene Yew

CEO & Founder of Pixeltree Inc

Entrepreneur and founder of Pixeltree Inc., co-founder of LocalShops.com, and a lead organizer of both YYC Dev and YYC.js, Serene combines her vision of empathy-based leadership with value-focused software development. An experienced innovator and problem solver, Serene collaborates with startup founders, business pioneers, and software developer talent across multiple business domains. A passionate believer in community and capacity building, her vision and dedication drive her goal of creating a sustainable mentorship ecosystem that fosters stewardship within the Calgary tech community.

Our three day schedule is jam-packed with support and resources for aspiring developers and entrepreneurs.

ScheduleFebruary 2-4

To launch the event, we're starting things off with a bang.

The second day of the event is when the bulk of product and business development occurs.

We close out the event with presentations from each team about the products that they've built.

  1. Doors Open and Registration Begins

    Registration beings! Enjoy snacks and refreshments while networking.

    3:30 PM

  2. Keynote Opening

    Fireside chat with Mayor Jyoti Gondek moderated by Serene Yew

    5:00 PM

  3. Problem Statement

    Introduction to the problem statement by Rowan Fisher

    5:45 PM

  4. Team Formation

    Group up, make your base, and get to work!

    6:00 PM

  5. End of Day 1

    Doors close

    8:00 PM

JudgesMeet the Judges

Linda Kongnetiman

Linda Kongnetiman

Manager Anti-Racism Program
City of Calgary

Jeff Clemens

Jeff Clemens

Associate Dean, Bow Valley College

Serene Yew

Serene Yew

CEO of Pixeltree

ScoringGet the high score

Design and Implementation (maximum 50 points)

Does it work? Is it implementable? Did the team think about the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX)? Was the product designed with humans in mind?

Innovation (maximum 25 points)

How innovative/creative/unique is the idea? Was there a novel approach applied to solve a problem?

Impact (maximum 25 points)

How impactful is the idea? Can it impact the lives of many people in a significant way? Is the idea aligned with and addresses one or more of the challenge problems?

Viability (maximum 25 points)

Is this product realistic? How original is the concept Has the team considered route to delivery and has made proactive actions to execute an action plan? Is the idea feasible, does it have economic and societal value, and is it sustainable?

Open Data Set (10 bonus points)

10 points will be added to your score if your project utilizes an open data set.

Our Event Sponsors

Title Sponsors

Pixeltree Inc.

Gold Sponsors

The City of Calgary
Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund

Venue Host

Bow Valley College

Media Sponsors

LiveWire Calgary

Sponsorship Opportunities

Sponsorship Inquiries

PrizesMore than bragging rights!

1st place winners will receive $3k

2nd place winners will receive $2k

3rd place winners will receive $1k

RulesCode of Conduct

This hackathon will follow the open source Hack code of conduct

  1. 1.

    Teams must have a minimum of 6 members, but no more than 10 members.

  2. 2.

    Teams should be made up exclusively of registered participants who are not organizers, volunteers, judges, sponsors, or in any other privileged position at the event.

  3. 3.

    All team members should be present at the event.

  4. 4.

    Teams can of course gain advice and support from organizers, volunteers, sponsors, and others.

  5. 5.

    All work on a project should be done at the hackathon.

  6. 6.

    Teams can use an idea they had before the event.

  7. 7.

    Teams can work on ideas that have already been done. Hacks do not have to be “innovative”. If a team wants to work on a common idea this is allowed and will only be judged on the quality of the hack.

  8. 8.

    Teams cannot work on a product that they have worked on before. Adding new features to existing projects is not allowed.

  9. 9.

    Teams can use libraries, frameworks, or open-source code in their projects. Working on a project before the event and open-sourcing it for the sole purpose of using the code during the event is against the spirit of the rules and is not allowed.

  10. 10.

    Teams must stop hacking once the time is up. However, teams are allowed to debug and make small fixes to their programs after time is up. e.g. If during demoing your hack you find a bug that breaks your application and the fix is only a few lines of code, it's okay to fix that. Making large changes or adding new features is not allowed.

  11. 11.

    Teams must be registered by 10pm on Friday, Feb 2, 2024. However, individuals may switch teams, and teams may change their ideas after that time.

  12. 12.

    Projects that violate the Code of Conduct are not allowed.

  13. 13.

    Teams can be disqualified from the competition at the organizers' discretion. Reasons might include but are not limited to breaking the Competition Rules, breaking the Code of Conduct, or other unsporting behavior.

ResourcesDatabases and datasets

Open Calgary

Statistics Canada Open Databases

Open Alberta Datasets

Open Canada datasets

Open Data Areas Alberta

University of Alberta data APIs