BOSTON (August 29, 2017) | The America East Academic Consortium (AEAC) announced today that the second annual America East hackathon, Hack AE, will take place on Saturday, November 4 – Sunday, November 5, 2017 at UMass Lowell.

Hack AE is a 24-hour civic hackathon designed to bring America East students together to build software and hardware projects that address the real-world challenges facing our neighborhoods, cities, states, and country. Building on last year’s push for students to “hack for a better world,” this year’s event will challenge students to develop technological solutions to issues in the areas of cybersecurity, education, environmental sustainability, and health and wellness. The event will once again be part of the Major League Hacking circuit, now in its 18^th season.

“UMass Lowell is honored to host the second annual Hack AE event,” said Steven Tello, the university’s senior associate vice chancellor for entrepreneurship and economic development. “Innovation and entrepreneurship are core pillars at UMass Lowell, and our support of Hack AE provides a significant opportunity for our students to engage, compete and collaborate with innovators, entrepreneurs and hackers from across the nine America East campuses.  There is strong interest among our students and faculty in this event, and our own DifferenceMaker Team is eager to welcome the hackers to UMass Lowell.”

Last year, the inaugural hackathon attracted more than 150 students from seven America East universities. Some of America East’s brightest young minds in entrepreneurship, engineering and technology collaborated in round-the-clock efforts to use technology to address issues of local, regional, national, or global significance. Award-winning projects included a website intended to connect physically disabled individuals with area volunteers in the event of an emergency, a device charger that uses salt water reaction cells to create free, renewable energy, and a web application that assists individuals in securing transportation to their designated polling station during election season. Representatives from leading organizations such as BAE Systems, Bloomberg, General Electric, IBM, Lockheed Martin, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Viacom were on site to provide support, speak with students about career possibilities, and share thoughts on developments in the technology sector.

“We received an incredible response to our first civic hackathon, and we are excited to work with UMass Lowell to build on that energy and enthusiasm,” said Juliette Kenny, executive director of the AEAC. “Challenging students to think critically about the real-world implications of their work is at the core of the Hack AE experience, and we’re thrilled to partner with a dynamic, forward-thinking campus that is constantly looking, through its DifferenceMaker program and other campus activities, to expand students’ understanding of how they can positively impact the world around them. UMass Lowell’s commitment to social innovation and entrepreneurship, combined with its state-of-the-art facilities and convenient location just outside of Boston, made it the perfect choice for this year’s hackathon.”

Hack AE organizers are currently recruiting mentors, judges, and sponsors to assist in providing students with the best hackathon experience possible. Interested individuals are encouraged to contact event organizers at info@theaeac.org.

Students interested in attending this year’s hackathon can find more information at http://theaeac.org/events/hackae. The event is open to undergraduate and graduate students at America East member universities.

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About the America East Academic Consortium: Established in June 2014, the America East Academic Consortium (AEAC) is dedicated to facilitating inter-institutional academic and administrative collaboration between the nine universities that comprise the America East Conference, a Division I intercollegiate athletic conference based in Boston, MA.  The AEAC proudly identifies the following universities as its members: University at Albany; Binghamton University; University of Hartford; University of Maine; University of Maryland, Baltimore County; University of Massachusetts Lowell; University of New Hampshire; Stony Brook University; and University of Vermont.