The College of Southern Maryland (CSM), in partnership the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division and with Brightidea, will implement a hybrid (virtual and in-person) AI hackathon in March 2024.

Create and fine-tune an image classification model that can detect and identify images from a given dataset. The goal of the challenge is to demonstrate key concepts such as data preprocessing, model architect design, and training techniques that can be transferable to military applications that involve the need for image classification.

Teams will engage collaboratively in the problem-solving opportunity from the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division to create an Image Classifier that will be able to detect and identify an aircraft!

Click to learn more about the Image Recognition Challenge and be sure to check out the challenge details for additional information. 

VelocityX is an exciting and novel program, but its success relies on the active participation from people like you. By participating in VelocityX you can:

• Work on real world solutions for a challenge 
• Earn prize money from a $12,000 pool
• Get support and technical resources to build your entrepreneurial ideas
• Get access to mentorship opportunities
• Contribute to an innovative program to build your resume and professional network

Here's what Hassan Turay, the first place winner in 2022 and 2023, had to say about his experience:

"My goal in this project was to hide the massive amounts of data from users and instead provide them with simple, palatable information," he said. His final project, which earned top title in the data visualization challenge, allowed users to map the flood risk of any property in the area. Turay was a second-time winner at VelocityX Hackathon: last year [in 2022], he was part of team 111%, which took home the top prize in the Range Testing Analytics Challenge."

1. Learn about the Challenge. To participate in VelocityX you first should learn more about the challenge.

2. Register. In order to submit an idea or join a team, please log in or "register" to create your account (see above and to the right). You will receive a confirmation e-mail to the e-mail address you supply. Once you are registered and logged in, you'll be able to complete the desired action!

3. Join the event or submit your initial idea to connect with potential teammates! This is just to get you started, you will be able to update and further build out your idea ahead of and during the hackathon.

4. Create Innovative Solutions at the Hackathon. The hackathon will be conducted in-person at the Velocity Center, but for those who are participating remotely, virtual hackathon participants can also participate using the hackathon site. A hackathon is a 2-day event that will be focused on building solutions to the challenge identified.

Congratulations to the 2023 VelocityX Climate Innovation Hackathon Winners.

Marketing Strategy Challenge

  ● 1st Place - Team EcoAlert (Dylan Bridgewater, Zephaniah Seaforth, Nishtha Patel)

  ● 2nd Place -Team Climate Marketers (Ali Beshir)

Data Visualization Challenge

  ● 1st Place - Team Climate Coders (Hassan Turay)

  ● 2nd Place- Surge Protector.py (Ari Gaskins)

  ● 3rd Place - Interactive Map (Thomas Wills, Miracle Washington, Nevaeh McKinney)

  ● 3rd Place - Data Visualization Tools (Syreika Thorpe)

Students Tackle Global Warming at VelocityX: Climate Innovation Hackathon, Earn $12,000 in Prizes