IRI: Cardano & Urbit Hackathon

[IMPACT]

The purpose of these events will be to encourage computer science students, novice developers, and others to take part in a Hackathon event that will connect the Cardano and Urbit platforms. We will invite students from the University of Illinois and surrounding university to spend the day or weekend in a rapid development experience.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has over 34,000 undergraduates and 20,000 graduate students. It is also home to the University of Illinois Research Park which hosts offices and research centers of some of the top technology companies. The local community also has its share of blockchain companies such as Runtime Verification and Wolfram Blockchain Labs.

By building cross-platform integrations between Cardano and Urbit participants will be exposed to the features of each ecosystem. We hope to market to a wide audience including individuals with little prior blockchain experience.

We recently formed a non-profit entity named "The Immutable Research Institute" (IRI) to organize educational, advocacy, and networking activities such as this. Our organization already has a relationship with the University of Illinois and will be able to take advantage of the campus and system facilities.

Major challenges include:

• Lack of participation
• Misunderstanding of project goals
• Failure to deliver a meaningful experience

We hope to mitigate those risks by recruiting volunteers from our partner organizations to promote the event, serve as mentors, and work directly with project teams to ensure success.

[FEASIBILITY]

Within 3 Months - We will have established the event venue, contacted likely speakers, and made a schedule for the event by June 15. We will begin our promotional efforts.

Within 6 Months - We will hold the event in mid-september on a weekend that if found to be most suitable for our purposes.

We believe that this timeline allows us enough runway to plan and execute the event.

$10,000 - Prize Pool. We will offer a grand price and several smaller prizes to the best teams.

$10,000 - Venue and Catering. We will likely have booking fees associated with venue locations (such as the iHotel Conference Center in the UI Research Park) and purchase food and drink for the participants.

$5,000 - Promotion and Travel Grants. We will need to publicize the event and helps teams attend. Travel grants may include mileage reimbursement or van rental for participants who come from outside the area.

Adam Rusch holds a PhD from the University of Illinois in Education Policy where he works as a Lecturer in Information Sciences and eLearning Specialist. He is the organizer of the Champaign Blockchain meetup group and a founder of the Immutable Research Institute. He is also a Core Contributor to ADAO and wrote the ADAO Constitution.

Neal Davis holds a PhD from the University of Illinios in Nuclear Engineering and is the Director of Developer Experience at the Urbit Foundation. He is a Teaching Assistant Professor of Computer Science (on leave) at the University of Illinois with a background in nuclear engineering and high-performance computing.

[AUDITABILITY]

IRI will provide updates on progress of the planning of this event on our website and social media accounts. Once the event has concluded we will write a retrospective report with information on what was done.

Success for the project will be a vibrant event with many participants. Furthermore, we want the participants to go away from the event with an appreciation of the Cardano and Urbit platforms along with a desire to build on them further.

This is a proposal for a new project.

SDG Rating

We believe that blockchain technologies are inherently aligned with Sustainable Development Goals by virtue of the decentralization philosophy that empowers every individual to make a difference in their own community and the wider world.

This project would align with the goal of Reduced Inequalities because it will help members of the blockchain community connect with peers and mentors. There is great inequality that comes from the connections (or lack thereof) that one has in an industry or society. By providing a space where every individual is welcome, regardless of privilege or background, we are doing just a little bit to level the playing field.