University of Maine to Host 3rd Annual America East Hackathon

BOSTON  –  January 9, 2019 – The America East Academic Consortium (AEAC) announced today that its 3rd annual America East hackathon, Hack AE, will take place on Saturday, March 2 – Sunday, March 3, 2019 at the University of Maine.

Hack AE is a 24-hour civic hackathon designed to bring America East students together to build software and hardware projects that address real-world challenges facing our neighborhoods, cities, states and country. Hack AE 2019 turns its focus to small farmers and other independent agricultural and agricultural dependent businesses. This year’s event will bring together cross-disciplinary skill sets of students from across the Northeast to address the integration of technology with the economic conditions of small agricultural businesses.

“University of Maine is honored to host the 3rd annual Hack AE event,” said Jeffrey Hecker, the University’s Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost. “Hack AE 2019 will provide a unique opportunity to challenge undergraduate students to harness technology, innovation and collaboration to address the integration of the latest in technology with the agricultural industry. University Maine’s Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITL) creates and manages the Hacker Space for students at UMaine and looks forward to welcoming hackers from across our America East membership to campus.”

Last year’s event saw more than 120 undergraduate and graduate students from across the America East apply their entrepreneurship, engineering and technological skills as they collaborated in round-the-clock efforts to use technology to address issues of local, regional, national or global significance resulting in several award-winning projects.

Representatives from leading organizations such as BAE Systems, Circle Health, and Massachusetts Clean Energy Center were present to provide support, speak with students about career possibilities, and share thoughts on developments in the technology sector.

“This year, we are looking forward to partnering with the University of Maine and its Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITL) as we examine the challenges facing small farmers,” said Marsha Florio, Executive Director of the AEAC. “We are thrilled to partner with Maine and CITL to provide a significant opportunity for students from the nine America East campuses to contribute their innovative, technological and entrepreneurial solutions to the diverse challenges facing America’s farmers.” University of Maine academic partners contributing to this event include the Center for Undergraduate Research (CUGR), Wireless Sensor Networks Lab (WiSe-Net), and the New Media/School of Computer and Information Sciences.

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 um.Hackathon@Maine.edu.

This year’s event is open to all currently enrolled undergraduate students at any college or university. Students interested in attending this year’s hackathon can find more information at https://theaeac.org/events/america-east-hackathon-hack-ae/.

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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.To learn more about the AEAC, please visit the initiative’s website at http://theaeac.org.