Rock Hack 2014

Last year we brought you the Geophysics Hackathon... now it's Geology's turn! Rock Hack is here.



Last year's event
'''The geophysics hack event was a big success. You can read a bit about it on the Agile blog. There are pictures on Flickr.'''

Posts about the last event

 * What we built at the weekend — links to the projects, video, etc.
 * Garage geoscience — the immediate aftermath
 * Make some geophysics — a follow-up invitation
 * Invitation to a geophysics hackathon — the original call

Thank you sponsors and supporters!
Want to help make this event happen? See below for sponsorship opportunities.

What
What is a hackathon?

Hackathon is an event where people come together to collaboratively build and launch mobile or web apps aimed at solving a particular problem. They usually work in small groups of up-to five people over a day or two, the aim is to come up with a prototype at the end of the hackathon.

Guide to organizing a successful hackathon

The basic idea of the hackathon is to build free geological mobile apps or web-based applications we can show to the rest of the world — "Here's what creative scientists can do in 2 days".

The format will be an optional contest between teams of 4. Competing teams are eligible for prizes and glory. Please use hackathon.io to register and stay up to date with the event.

Individuals or teams are welcome to come on a non-competitive basis, to learn, explore, or just to have fun.

Where
TBD, please stay tuned.

When
Saturday and Sunday, 5 and 6 April (the weekend right before the AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition)

It will be something like this:

FYI, here's what's going on at AAPG on the Sunday:


 * 7:30 a.m.–7:00 p.m. ............Registration
 * 12:55 p.m.–3:00 p.m. ..........History of Petroleum Geology Forum
 * 2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m. ............YP Meet & Greet
 * 3:00 p.m.–3:45 p.m. ............Imperial Barrel Award (IBA) Ceremony
 * 4:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m. ............Opening Session and Awards Ceremony
 * 5:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m. ............Exhibition and Icebreaker Reception

We will be going on to the Icebreaker after the hackathon on Sunday. The main event is less than a mile from the hackathon venue.

Rules
These are from the Geophysics Hackathon 2013 — they are probably going to change for this event.


 * 1) It's your hackathon. You can work on anything you like, in any way you like, if you don't want to be part of the contest.
 * 2) Team size. Teams should have no more than 4 members
 * 3) Fresh code. None of your code should exist before the hackathon, and the code must be developed on site. Teams may plan ahead of time, however.
 * 4) Frameworks. You can use any language, frameworks, platforms, or libraries you wish. You can build an iOS or Android mobile app or a web app, but not a desktop application.
 * 5) Publishing code. There will be extra credit for published, open source code — but this is at the team’s discretion. We’d love to see a new software company too!
 * 6) Schedule. We will start as soon after 9 am on Saturday as we can. We will finish at 4 pm sharp on Sunday, and commence with demos.
 * 7) Prize categories. There will be 2 categories: Best overall, and Best idea. There will be prizes.
 * 8) Judging criteria. To compete, you must deliver a working app, and a 3 minute demo/presentation. You will be scored on originality, functionality, science, impact, and design.
 * 9) Small print. By taking part in the event, you agree to allow Agile Geoscience to include mention of your participation in the event, and to appear in photos and video of the event.
 * 10) Smaller print. Agile Geoscience makes no claim over intellectual property generated during the event. Your work belongs to you and your team.
 * 11) Smallest print. Agile Geoscience reserves the right to change the rules before the event starts, and is the sole arbiter of rule interpretation should disputes arise. Which seems unlikely.

How much
The hackathon is free to attend. Thank you to our generous sponsors for making this possible.

How to attend
Sign up at Hacker League.

Projects
These are completely hypothetical project ideas. Please steal/adapt/change/remove or add to them. They are not prescriptive, just intended to get the creative juices flowing. If you already have an idea, yours is probably better. Probably definitely better.


 * Sequence stratigraphy calibration app used to tie events to absolute geologic time and to help interpret systems tracts
 * Wireline log 'attributes'
 * Automatic well-to-well correlation
 * Facies recognition from core
 * Automatic photomicrograph interpretation: grain size, porosity, sorting, and so on
 * An mobile app for finding and capturing data about outcrops
 * Sedimentation rate analysis, accounting for unconformities, compaction, and grain size

Sponsorship
This is under development, we're open to suggestions!

If you'd like to support innovation and promote technology in subsurface geoscience, please consider sponsoring the event. [mailto:matt@agilegeoscience.com?subject=Rock%20Hack Email Matt about this.]

Gold $2000

 * Identification on the wiki and blog, with large logo
 * Identification in the event movie with a large logo
 * Identification on the HackerLeague pages as a Gold sponsor
 * Large banner or signs (sponsor provided) at the event if you wish
 * Large logo on t-shirt and other swag provided to participants
 * The right to name and designate a prize at the event
 * A slot at the awards on Day 2 to speak for 5 minutes about any subject you like

Silver $1000

 * Identification on the wiki and blog, with logos
 * Identification in the event movie with a logo
 * Identification on the HackerLeague pages as a Silver sponsor
 * A banner or signs (sponsor provided) at the event if you wish
 * Logo on t-shirt and other swag provided to participants

Bronze $500

 * Identification on the wiki and the blog as a Bronze sponsor
 * A mention in the event movie credits
 * Name on t-shirt provided to participants