PHILLY 250 MARITIME DEFENSE HACKATHON
Top engineering students, shipbuilders, warfighters and venture capital investors are converging on the 23rd St Armory in Philadelphia for a first-of-its-kind maritime defense hackathon. From March 27 to March 29, Albacore Inc. and leading maritime sponsors will convene 100+ elite builders for an intensive, mission-driven 48-hour sprint focused on the future of maritime defense.
This is not a typical hackathon. The event will include:
10 boats reserved for hacker teams to conduct experimentation with
All-expenses-paid trips to Ukraine for the top 3 teams and free hardware shipping
Up to $50k in cash prizes for the winning team
All expenses (travel and housing) in the East Coast accommodated for hackers for the duration of the event. Please contact us about travel support if you are traveling from a different region.
Problem Statements:
America’s Shipbuilding Industrial Base (Judges: US Navy operators)
Autonomous Maritime Defense (Judges: Ukrainian warfighters)
Maritime Domain Awareness and Interdiction (Judges: USCG operators and European allied partners)
Problem statements are open-ended, and various solutions, ranging from complete hardware platforms (e.g. boats) to subsystems (e.g. mountable sensing equipment), to pure software, are within the anticipated scope of the event.
Initial supporters include leading venture funds RSquared, D3, Heliad, Reveille VC and Brave Capital, with additional institutions and strategic partners in active discussion. Tentative judges and speakers include former Navy SEAL commanders and members of the National Security Council, an Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and Managing Partners from Y Combinator and the largest Defense VC Fund in Ukraine.
Agenda:
Friday 3/27, 12:00pm: Registration opens
Friday 3/27, 3:00pm: Keynote, problem statement introduction
Friday 3/27, 5:00pm: Hacking commences
Friday 3/27, 10:00pm: Overnight DJ set 1
Saturday 3/28, 9:00am-3:00pm: Mentor office hours
Saturday 3/28, 10:00pm: Overnight DJ set 2
Sunday 3/29, 9:00am: Hacking concludes
Sunday 3/29, 10:00am: Keynote commencement speech
Sunday 3/29, 12:00pm-3:00pm: Demonstrations
Sunday 3/29, 4:30pm: Winners announced
Sunday 3/29, 5:00pm: Event departures
A note on teams: You can register individually or with a team. If you are looking for teammates, we can pair you with others in complementary disciplines who are interested in the same focus areas as you.