HACKATHON CHALLENGES
Capsule Hack has identified six challenge categories that intersect with the environment in meaningful, impactful ways. At Capsule Hack, we aim to develop innovative projects for problems at these intersections of the environment and six challenge categories: Art, Education, Energy, Health, Food, and Cities.
CITIES
All of our hackathon challenge categories are intentionally broad in order to encapsulate the many cities-related ideas that have the potential to improve the planet. Everything is welcome—data visualization for cities, urban agriculture, transportation, green construction, water management, natural resource protection of aquifers, rivers, and other resources—if you can dream it, we want to see it. Submit a project idea here!
CHALLENGE PARTER
Each of Capsule’s challenges has one or more Challenge Partners. These Challenge Partners are passionate about their category and invested in supporting projects coming in under their challenge. Our Challenge Partners for Cities are Planet Texas 2050 and the UT Austin Center for Transportation Research.
Planet Texas 2050
Planet Texas 2050 is an eight-year sprint to find solutions that will make our communities more resilient and better prepared. To do that, we’re bringing together architects, archaeologists, city planners, public health experts, geologists, engineers, computer scientists, artists — and more.
CTR
The Center for Transportation Research (CTR) is a multidisciplinary and multimodal research institute at The University of Texas at Austin. Recognized as one of the leading university-based transportation research centers in the world, CTR leads the Texas Innovation Alliance - an action network of local, regional, and state agencies as well as research institutions who are developing shared solutions to the state’s most pressing mobility solutions.
INSPIRATION
Here are some incredible projects around the world that have us inspired! No idea is too outlandish. Find your next steps through Capsule’s Innovation Pipeline.
Carbicrete’s breakthrough technology, which can be implemented in any concrete plant, makes it possible to produce concrete without using cement. Using a process called carbonation activation, CO2 is injected into the wet concrete to give it its strength.
As a result, any product made using Carbicrete technology permanently sequesters CO2, while turning industrial waste (steel slag) into a high-quality construction product. Concrete made using this process meets the same specifications as cement-based concrete, has lower material costs, and possesses better mechanical and durability properties. The end result? A cost-effective process for making precast products that reduces concrete makers’ carbon footprint.
The American Cities Climate Challenge is an unprecedented opportunity for 25 ambitious cities to significantly deepen and accelerate their efforts to tackle climate change and promote a sustainable future for their residents.
Originally open to 20 American cities, the program was expanded to 25 cities due to the strength of the applications received.
Dendra Systems uses satellite and drone-collected data to determine the best location to plant trees for ecosystem restoration. Two operators equipped with 10 drones can plant 400,000 trees per day. Just 400 teams could plant 10 billion trees each year, with the capability to scale to tens of billions of trees annually. The fully automated and highly scalable Dendra solution plants 150 times faster and 4-10 times cheaper than current methods. This technology provides a new tool enabling global enterprises and governments to meet their restoration commitments.