Hackathons Embed Partnerships Into Problem Solving

So, what exactly is a hackathon?

A mashup of “hack” and “marathon,” these events evoke a certain scene in our imaginations: college students huddled around laptops in dorm basements, spending days and nights coding and building new software.

Though not completely off base, “hackathon” is more broadly defined today. Technologists use the term to describe a number of different types of gatherings that vary in scope, size, and execution. But, for the most part they all contain an assortment of cross-discipline teams, a shared challenge, and an element of competition. Typically, that’s a cash prize, or a mechanism to scale prototypes.

What they do well is bring together professionals across skill sets to solve major problems. Think social problems like poverty and homelessness or even health obstacles such as electronic health records and policy for medical providers. And they aren’t solely the domain of hard-core techies.

“I assumed you had to be a developer or coder to participate,” says IT Strategist Anastasiya Olds, talking about her first hackathon. “It was a collaboration between Booz Allen and the Holocaust Museum. I have a very functional systems delivery background but was able to contribute right away.” 

Booz Allen has been taking advantage of this model to allow employees a new avenue to showcase their skills while creating solutions for some weighty issues. Through the years, we’ve crossed private-public sector lines to collaborate on numerous other issues:

• Securely integrating new smart city technology solutions
• Predicting terror attacks using open source datasets and application program interfaces
• Improving and updating marine safety inspections technology across U.S. coastal ports
• Testing the security of Navy drones and ships against intense cyber attacks
• Combating PTSD with new brain health technologies
• Increasing awareness of cybersecurity needs in the bio-tech industry

What we’re doing with hackathons is embedding partnerships into problem-solving. With every one, the world gets a little smaller, and more people come together.

"We fully embrace our client’s missions. That means making client support as inclusive and collaborative as possible," says Brian MacCarthy, head of Booz Allen’s San Francisco Strategic Innovation Hub. "We've made hackathons a key part of how we maintain that ideal."

Back in Austin, 250 HackTheMachine participants take off their villain caps after an epic, 72-hour electronic assault on Booz Allen’s Boat-In-ABox, a fully functional model of the networked systems that equip today’s connected maritime vessels.

Their 3 days of simulated evil-doing was exhausting but satisfying. It bore substantial fruit: 10 winning solutions that could potentially improve safety and efficiency of maritime cybersecurity, use data science to create safer oceans, and harness next generation design for position, navigation, and timing alternatives.

The U.S. Navy’s biggest win of the week end, however, did not come from the HackTheMachine participants. It was the number of participants. A huge shortage in the current cyber workforce means that creatively engaging such a large number of tech industry and academic talents was a major win.

Is it possible to engage America’s young, innovative, willing-to-take-a-risk entrepreneurs in the mission of solving the government and military’s most difficult challenges?”

With HackTheMachine and other hackathons, Booz Allen has answered that question for the U.S. Navy and other clients looking to tap the tech community’s vital pool of talent.