We are absolutely delighted that you can join us for this exciting two-week sprint and allow us to witness your creativity and ingenuity in action. This email signals the official start of the Appathon — you have two full weeks until midnight, Saturday, July 31st to create your apps and videos. Your team captains will receive instructions on how to prepare your submissions in a separate email later this week, so be on the lookout for that very important message. At this point, please make sure that all members of your team under 18 have provided parental approval so that your team does not automatically disqualify.
Please review the Appathon site for information and please register at the Appathon Community Group to ask questions and meet other contestants
The themes of Appathon 2021 are below. They are intentionally broad to encourage creativity and allow diverse approaches. We look forward to seeing what you create, and the new connections you make during these two weeks. Let the Appathon begin!
-MIT App Inventor Appathon 2021 Organizing Committee
Theme 1: City of the Future App
Create an app for a City of the Future that addresses a particular need of its citizens. You can envision how your app would benefit their lives in a utopian or dystopian future. Your city does not even have to be Earth-bound — it could be a Lunar or Martian colony or somewhere beyond. Imagine future citizens of this city with their own needs, goals, and dreams. In your write-up and video, give us a clear, concise description of your vision of the future.
Be specific with your app! City of the Future topics to consider: schools, libraries, or education; hospitals or healthcare; child/elderly care; grocery stores, restaurants, or food; malls or shopping; zoos or amusement parks, concert halls, cinemas, or entertainment; sports and recreation; roads and traffic; firehouses, police stations, or security; garbage collection or recycling; town hall or government.
Theme 2: Academic App
Where can teachers introduce coding into the classroom? Anywhere! Coding fits well in many academic subjects. For example, a foreign language department could ask students to build apps to translate between languages, a science department could ask students to build apps to recognize different types of plants, a social studies department could ask students to build apps to guide users through historical landmarks of their city.
Pick an academic field and develop an app for that field. The app can either help teach that field (a “Tour Guide” app, for example) or address a specific need in that field (a Translation app, for example). In your write-up and video, give us a clear, concise description of how your app would be used by an academic department.
Some academic fields to consider: Arts, Science, Math, Social Studies, History, Geography, Foreign Languages, Literature, Physical Education, and Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence.
Theme 3: Computational Action App
How could your app make the world better? Identify a need in your community and create an app to address that need. For instance, Is there an app that could address water/air quality? Is there something that could help with the problem of food insecurity? Can your app help with demands in a post-Covid world? In your write-up and video, give us a clear, concise description of how your app addresses a community need.
