On April 20, StackPath joined Microsoft, Operation Code, Twilio, and Bunker Labs as sponsors of VetHacks the first-ever, three-day hackathon hosted by Patriot Bootcamp, a division of TechStars. VetHacks aims to bring together veterans, spouses of service members, and technologists to work towards building the next generation of military spouse/veteran founded companies. To that end, it’s been a success. The event comprised of five teams competing to build the best solution to help solve various problems for people within the military community. The ideas included an app that would help veterans locate and access resources for them to take advantage of after they’ve ended their service, another app that would help modernize how the military tracks organization structures though human resource management systems, and the other that would help individuals communicate through location-aware social networks that use augmented reality to present messages in the real world.
Each of the five teams were given five minutes to present their ideas to judges, explaining the impact of each solution on the military community and how each idea could be implemented beyond the hackathon. The winning hack was developed by team PCS Folder. Permanent Change of Station (PCS) is when a family is relocated or deployed to a new location. Military families have to move every year and a half (or more), and all of them use binders to organize and track the process. PCS Folder built an app that helps families do all that work digitally and interactively with the goal of streamlining and simplifying the process. The judges all agreed this was an idea that would make a major, positive impact in the military community.
VetHacks goes to Seattle, Washington from October 19-21, 2018 for the next hackathon. Learn more at vethacks.org.
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