THE Port is looking for your input

Look at the clock: it’s 2 a.m. Look at the cup: out of coffee. Look at the electronics on the table: sort of working. Go back to the computer: code seems to be running fine. Good, time for more coffee. The hammock in the corner creaks a little, someone else still burning the midnight oil, probably needing coffee too.

Two days later and we had a sort-of working prototype of a desktop cosmic ray detector. Others had built an electronic suit for use by mine detection dogs, an inflatable fridge for vaccines, a terrain-mapping tool for refugee camps, demarking tools for conflict zones and an obfuscated database for sensitive information. 60+ enthusiastic and satisfied participants came together for three exciting and extremely productive days for THE Port hackathon last October, tackling humanitarian problems with a technical bent in collaboration with a variety of NGOs.

After such success, we are planning to run a second event this autumn, from 2-4 October at two locations: IdeaSquare at CERN, where we will focus on hardware-related humanitarian topics, and Campus Biotech, where we will focus on health-related topics as well as information and communications technology. We are on the hunt for new topics and ideas to pass on to our participants this year and we’d like your input! Ideas for topics can come from NGOs, participants or anyone else with an interesting suggestion. Know of a problem facing the world, no matter how big or small, or have an idea for something that could help others? Contact us at ideas@theport.ch - we’d love to hear all about it!

For more information, please see http://www.theport.ch.