Challenges

All challenge pages are listed below; every challenge has sections titled "Background", "Solutions", and "Resources". Each of these challenges has a museum stakeholder listed as the owner and with primary goals that help them expand their research.

The Background describes the problem(s) that the challenge is attempting to solve and overall goals.

Each challenge proposes several Solutions which a team of 5 or more people could successfully build a working prototype or a proof of concept of during the hackathon.

Lastly, the Resources section contains links to relevant datasets, documentation, formats, or downloads of sample files specifically for the solutions to that challenge. Sample files are often included in this GitHub repository (<> Code tab above), under the "challenges" directory, in a sub-directory named for the challenge - however, some datasets are only available directly from a hard drive due to restrictions on widely publishing the data. Please ask hackathon organizers if you're looking for data from hard drives! More data may also be available by directly asking the museum stakeholders.

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• Untold Stories of Historic Personages: Tell the Story of a Prominent Woman Scientist, Explorer, or Researcher from the Museum (As many solutions as needed) {Chris Johnson}

• Stinger Inspector: Use Computer Vision and Machine Learning to Reclassify Cnidarians. (2n solutions) {Fani Rodriguez}

• Virtual Fossil Fragmenter: Use Computer Vision and 3D Modeling to Identify Fossil Fragments of Shells, Bivalves, Trilobites. (n solutions) {Melanie Hopkins}

• Iron Out the Kinks: Create Tools to Automate Rendering 3D Models of Marine Microbes from 2D Cross-sections. (2n solutions) {Aaron Heiss}

• The Eye of Maria: Build Simulations to Model the Effect of a Hurricane on Objects Drifting in the Ocean. (n solutions) {David Lindo}

• Map The Collections: Georeference Collections Specimens to Visualize Expeditions and Ecosystems in Space and Time. (n solutions) {Chris Johnson}

• Trilobite Bits: Use computer vision to count the segments of or identify other characteristics of trilobites. (n solutions) {Melanie Hopkins}

• Find The Plastic Flow: Map, Animate, and Quantify Sources and Travel Times of Plastic Found in the Gyres of The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. (n solutions) {David Lindo}

• Painting the Ocean: Design Software or Tools that Identify the Path of a Particle or an Oil Spill Using Imagery. (n solutions) {David Lindo}