Time to open a can of PennApps

You’ve heard of a marathon, a triathlon even a bike-a-thon, but have you heard of a hackathon?

Next Friday, the top student engineers, designers and entrepreneurs in the world will descend on the University of Pennsylvania for PennApps, the largest student hackathon in the country (could we say world?). After 48 hours of hacking, caffeine and pizza, a winner will be crowned to the tune of $4000.

The event is huge. So huge in fact, that the 200 tickets sold out overnight. Getting tickets may be the first challenge, but the bigger question is: who will open a can of PennApps?

Can of PennApps

Sure. You’ve heard of a can of whoopass, but the true mark of hacking royalty is opening the can of PennApps. To open the can, it is essential to choose the right platform and make a kickapps app.

Thus the essential questions: what to build?

This year, there are no shortage of well known platforms. You have your Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Firefox and more. But what if you want to do something BIG. Something that taps into the deep crevaces of the web? Something that leverages open source solutions?

Hacking on IKANOW

If you are ready for a can of PennApps, you should be hacking on IKANOW’s API.

Why? The answers are big data and open source technology. Big data technology and services are expected to grow by 40% in the next three years and the scientists who have experience with it are in high demand and bring in the dough. Using an open source platform to explore big data gives engineers the opportunity to identify relationships and visual represent connections between data sources, both structured and unstructured.

IKANOW lives and breathes big data and open source technology. We are an open source analytics company used by large government agencies (that cannot be named or the spies will get you), huge financial institutions and innovative healthcare companies to combine data from sources like Hadoop and MongoDB with data from social networks, the web and more. With friendly documentation and the foundation for powerful applications, IKANOW is a hacker’s dream.

Additional prize

If that wasn’t enough, IKANOW is excited to offer an additional prize for the team that creates the best IKANOW app. That means on top of the chance to win money from PennApps, you can win $500 in Amazon gift cards and a can of PennApps from our team.

So, if you’re up to the challenge of big data, check out the IKANOW API. Craig (@craigvitter) from IKANOW will be at PennApps so he can help you out and ask any questions, just tweet him. Plus if you want to take a sneak preview or get a headstart, you can check out our API today!

Fame, glory and a can of PennApps await. See you next Friday in Philadelphia.