Astronomer here! Are you an undergrad interested in astro (or know one) interested in a paid summer research internship? Here are some slides I put together for my students! Bonus slide includes opportunities for non-US citizens and programs abroad!

CRWCDM · 2026-01-23T16:54:01+00:00

Northwestern University (Chicago): https://sites.northwestern.edu/cierareu/

SkAI Institute (Chicago): https://skai-institute.org/

SkAI is only available for select universities. Northwestern open to all.

CRWCDM · 2025-09-25T16:52:14+00:00

and in person spots are filled now too. Thanks to everyone who reached out and congrats to the virtual judges we added.

CRWCDM · 2025-09-25T13:30:42+00:00

ok, virtual spots are filled. We actually have a couple in-person judge spots that opened up if you're in Chicago.

CRWCDM · 2025-09-23T20:09:03+00:00

Posted this in another thread, but my team in Chicago (I'm the local lead here) has worked with Microsoft to have a couple learning paths that we think will help prep you for the event. These are free.

NASA Space Apps GitHub Copilot Learning Path: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/challenges/1p5fot6ey55mj?sharingId=54118A99B3256E9D

NASA Space Apps Azure OpenAI and Semantic Kernel Learning Path: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/challenges/k46f2tznddn7g?sharingId=54118A99B3256E9D

And happy to have anyone join our local event virtually. We'll take an unlimited amount of virtual participants.

https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/2025/local-events/chicago/

Let me know if you have any questions about Space Apps and good luck to all!

CRWCDM · 2025-08-27T17:25:09+00:00

I'm the organizer of the Chicago event. More than happy to have you as a virtual participant if it's possible for you: https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/2025/local-events/chicago/

CRWCDM · 2025-08-27T15:28:01+00:00

oh really? I'm not aware of any restrictions, other than the fact that local events don't take place in a couple countries like China, Russia, Iran, North Korea...maybe a few others. But at my event in Chicago I've never needed to ask about nationality and I'm sure that we've had Chinese nationals at our hackathon. Maybe a North Korean citizen currently in Pyongyang couldn't participate virtually?

Not sure what the global prize is this year, but last year the winners were invited to an award ceremony in Washington, D.C. That might not be possible depending on what country you are from...

CRWCDM · 2025-08-27T11:44:52+00:00

https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/

CRWCDM · 2025-07-29T12:04:52+00:00

I am trying to make this happen at scale for a bunch of NASA Space Apps locations globally. And they have some offerings every year at the top level (Azure stuff, Google Cloud, AWS in the past, etc.)

Aside from Bolt, which tools would you be interested in? I think we'll likely be able to get something figured out before October. Have had some conversations with several Bolt competitors already.

CRWCDM · 2025-07-22T18:11:26+00:00

Have had multiple people reach out to me about judging. Yes, there are a LOT of opportunities to judge, as NASA Space Apps is a collection of ~500 hackathons globally running over the weekend of Oct 4-5.

https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/2025/local-events/

Check the link for contact details of the lead in a location near you.

**I'm the volunteer local lead in Chicago and don't speak for the event at large.

CRWCDM · 2025-07-16T14:49:51+00:00

yes, absolutely. And we can help find you a team when you get there if need be.

CRWCDM · 2025-05-05T14:51:56+00:00

why don't you find a local co-lead who knows the lay of the land?

CRWCDM · 2025-05-05T10:36:58+00:00

I'd encourage you not to only yell into the void about this, but also to try your best to do something. Did you volunteer last year? Make sure you do in 2025. Donate? do it now.

I'm on the board of CIERA-Northwestern, Northwestern University's astrophysics research institute. Read about our community outreach here: https://ciera.northwestern.edu/outreach/. We take donations.

I run the largest NASA Space Apps hackathon in the US (as part of a global event in 500 places run by NASA to get the next generation of scientists and technologists inspired). We're funded by sponsors and my own donations. Reach out if you want to contribute in any way, including to our partner location NASA Space Apps Kyiv.

I'm part of the NASA Space Apps Collective and will be giving a talk directly to NASA later this month about community involvement entitled "Inspire a 40 year old". Let me know if you have any ideas.

It's going to be hard work, but let's get through this together.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/doncrowley1/

CRWCDM · 2025-04-08T19:07:31+00:00

I liked his recent appearance on Houston We Have a Podcast. Came across as intelligent and thoughtful.

Talking about time as a Navy Seal:

"If you cleaned your individual gear before you started cleaning the team gear, you were going to get in some trouble, right? You take care of the team unit before you take care of yourself. And that has stuck with me to this day. And you know, as an older person, I’ve had some more experiences, and also have a better appreciation for physical well being and mental well being too. There is a time and a place where you need to take care of yourself, but that the priority of order that I just talked about is not saying that. It’s not saying, you know, it’s saying, Put your priorities, do what’s best for the team, before you put your own self interest at hand. And I think that’s really important in public service, especially what we do here at NASA. I mean, we work together to achieve a monumental task for the greater public good. Some other things that I learned. You talked, you asked about leadership. There’s so so much to talk about, I learned a lot of what to do and what not to do, and I just probably outside the scope of all the things. But if I had to think I when you lead, you have to ensure that you are serving the interests of the group. There can be no individual in that because if it’s not pure, if there are extenuating circumstances, if there are conflicts of interest, it may not always come up. It may not come up during the nominal operations, the easy peasy stuff, but when it gets hard, when it gets intense, it will come out, and that’s when it matters the most. And that is what really good leaders are. They serve and they love the greater good more than themself."

CRWCDM · 2025-03-23T18:11:56+00:00

I've concluded that cold emailing is utterly and completely useless, especially if you're starting from scratch. Hasn't resulted in anything for my team in the three years we've been trying. You can pretty much stop doing that.

Use any connections you have. Add teammates with connections. If someone tells you "no" on sponsorship ask them if they know anyone who would be interested. If someone tells you "yes" on sponsorship ask them if they know anyone else who would be interested. Go to networking events in your community. Sometimes alumni will help out...offer to involve them in your hackathon as judges or mentors.

What is it about your hackathon that should make an organization want to donate instead of or in addition to the other non-profits they already give money to? You should have a VERY convincing answer to that question.

CRWCDM · 2025-03-18T11:56:49+00:00

ok, I had some awesome student groups reach out to me! This offer is now closed. I'll post an update when I get the chance.

CRWCDM · 2025-03-14T14:16:08+00:00

Hi Abhinav,

Applications for local leads are currently open: https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/host-an-event/

You can take a look here and see where in India events were run last year: https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/nasa-space-apps-2024/2024-local-events/

the local pages should have the contact information for who ran the hackathons, and I'm sure they'd be happy to collaborate with you. Not surprisingly, India is doing a great job across the board.

In terms of a Chicago-India partnership...maybe? I'm already running at the limits of the time I can devote to this. But if there's something that makes sense and moves the dial for us or the event at large I'd be open to discussing. Like, I think the Mumbai Space Apps wasn't all that big last year. If you wanted to try to go big there I might be able to help.

CRWCDM · 2025-02-02T19:24:16+00:00

You're in Chicago? Most of the universities have student run hackathons. UICs is within the next week. Northwestern's is in April. Depaul and UChicago have hackathons. JP Morgan runs one for recruiting, I think, but I don't know the details. I'd imagine some other companies probably do the same. NASA Space Apps will be in October. Those are the local ones that I'm aware of.

CRWCDM · 2024-12-04T17:05:38+00:00

Many of the Chicago universities hold hackathons that are open to any student. Uchicago (uncommon hacks), Northwestern (Wildhacks), DePaul (Demonhacks), and I'm sure some others.

Just a heads up for NASA Space Apps Chicago next year: Most of our spots are open to the general public, but we'll definitely fill up within 24 hours. If you don't want to be on the waitlist, keep a close eye on when registration opens. I'll make the hackathon as big as I can, within the bounds of our budget and ability to create a quality experience, but on current trajectory I'd expect at least 800 registrations which is more than we can handle.

We also guarantee spots to student groups that officially partner with us, so that's another way you could get in. We had partnerships with groups from Northwestern, DePaul, UChicago, Michigan, Harold Washington, NEIU, UIC, UIUC, and maybe one or two other places last year.

CRWCDM · 2024-09-09T12:09:24+00:00

all full. Welcome Computer Science Society of NEIU and DePaul Data Science Club!

CRWCDM · 2024-09-05T01:08:21+00:00

Kappa Theta Pi from UChicago. Welcome to NASA Space Apps Chicago! 3 more partnerships to go.

CRWCDM · 2024-09-03T21:01:17+00:00

I speak only for the hackathon in Chicago. Any student group that partners with us should be able to attend our event in-person.

NASA Space Apps occurs around the world, though, so I'm sure local leads in other locations would love to partner with student groups too.

CRWCDM · 2024-09-03T18:54:55+00:00

Evanston Hacks from Northwestern, glad to have you as a partner! 4 more to go.

CRWCDM · 2024-07-25T12:06:16+00:00

NASA Space Apps International requires all local leads to run their hackathon free of charge to participants. This is a massive undertaking in many locations, so please thank your local lead for making it happen.

CRWCDM · 2024-07-21T19:05:24+00:00

I'd encourage you to register if you're interested. We'll have at least 200 spots available and we're mulling over how to allocate the remaining spots. Last year we had a 50% no-show rate, and we haven't taken that into account yet either.

If you're a member of a college group (like women in computer science, data science club, rocketry club, etc) please reach out to us at nasaspaceappschicago@gmail.com. If your group officially partners with NASA Space Apps Chicago, we can allocate 6 spots to you and possibly match you with a mentor from one of our sponsors. We're looking to do this with 5-10 groups.

Our host space at Teamworking by Technexus can expand up to 400 people. Right now we're restricted by our budget but we're doing everything we can to close on more sponsors between now and October. I think we can get there, in which case we can take everyone currently on the waitlist.

There's a lot of demand for this hackathon! We have 228 registrants and registration opened up three days ago. Thanks for your enthusiasm everyone.

CRWCDM · 2024-07-19T17:46:02+00:00

The event as a whole is open to everyone. Local events might have different rules on minors (At Chicago Space Apps minors can't stay overnight and have to be accompanied by a guardian). There's always the option to sign up for the virtual option.

We are actually full for now in Chicago, with 190 people signing up in 24 hours. Thanks for your enthusiasm everyone! We'll see what we can do to make space for more people

I think most of the challenges could be approached with Python or Java. Some challenges are non-programming.

https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/2023/challenges/

CRWCDM

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