NASA and IBM Team up for Fourth Annual Hackathon

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and International Business Machines (IBM) have collaborated for the fourth Annual International Space Apps Challenge, or Hackathon. Both the United States space agency and the computer hardware company will encourage scientists, engineers, programmers and educators to work on applications that could assist the space program of NASA and improve connectivity with people.

The Hackathon was started by NASA to search for ideas from sources outside the space agency. In the event, many programmers work together on software projects. The event takes place for a few days every year. It promotes creation of a number of unique of programs that can help the space agency.

This year, the event will take place from April 10 to April 12, where a number of non-scientists will collaborate to help NASA in developing new applications which could help both the space agency and general public.

During the event, Armonk headquartered IBM will work with the space agency to offer its cloud services and technical support to the contestants at the event. According to reports, the computer hardware company will also offer Bluemix platform and some other tools such as Watson, the company’s supercomputer.

On the other side, the United States space agency NASA will get access to the opportunity for creating futuristic software that could help its astronauts on International Space Station (ISS) with a number of tasks. The event will also provide an opportunity to IBM to promote its Bluemix platform among audience.

During the event, IBM will reward of about $120,000 to a total of about 30 contestants who will design the unique and useful app for the space agency. As per the reports, NASA will felicitate the accolades in five diverse categories and fields.