Microsoft Kinect For Windows Weekend Hackathon (August 8th – 10th)

Waterloo Region is hosting the only Canadian location for the Microsoft Kinect for Windows Hackathon tour! Microsoft is bringing a crew of their top Kinect engineers Kitchener to help make this hackathon weekend a great experience. This hackathon welcomes Developers, UI/UX designers, artists, gamers, roboticists, engineers, product managers, marketing visionaries, entrepreneurs… anyone interesting in learning how to use Kinect v2 features for innovative creations. Come as a team, form a team when you arrive or work independently.

Bring your talent, bring your ideas, bring your enthusiasm. Bring your laptops (or Macbook Air or Pro) with USB3 support and Microsft will provide the full Kinect For Windows SDK and bootable hard drives with full Kinect development environment. Microsoft will have a limited number of Surface Pro developer laptops if needed. Conestoga College is providing iMac workstations loaded with creative software (Adobe CS6 and other tools). If you have a Kinect sensor, bring it along or borrow one of Microsoft’s devices.

NOTE: The Kinect for Windows engineering team is also bringing along experimental firmware that turns the new Kinect sensor into a NFC device. What might you do if the sensor is calibrated to work with near field communications?

The Hackathon Weekend Plan:

Friday Aug. 8th:

• 7:00pm – Check-in and get to know each other
• 8:00pm- Opening instructions from Microsoft Kinect Team followed by project concept pitches, team organization and hackathon setup. Arrive as a team, join a team or work indepedendently with MS Kinect Engineers to support the learning process.
• ALL NIGHT LONG – Let the designing and hacking begin!

Saturday Aug. 9th:

• 7:00am – Coffee starts brewing
• 8:00am – Full breakfast served
• 9:00am to Noon – Hackathon time
• Noon – Lunch will be served
• 1:00pm to 6:00pm – Hackathon Time
• 6:00pm – Dinner will be served
• 7:00pm until you fall asleep – Hackathon Time

Sunday Aug. 10th:

• 7:00am – Coffee starts brewing
• 8:00am – Full breakfast served
• 9:00am to Noon – Finishing touches and prep for presentation
• Noon – Lunch will be served
• 1:00pm to 3:00pm – Team presentations and winners announced by Microsoft. Microsoft is generously

Sponsoring prizes for the top three teams:

• 1st place: Each member of the team (up to 5 people) will receive their own Kinect For Windows device plus $500 cash to share.
• 2nd place: $250 in cash for the team to share
• 3rd place: $100 in cash for the team to share