In a hackathon, teams of participants collaborate and compete to find the best solutions to a business or humanitarian challenge using technology. But unlike many traditional hackathons where participants meet in person for a couple of days, the SAS Hackathon is all-digital and lasts for a month.

Prior to the hack, teams have access to a learning portal and a SAS mentor. Hackathon participants can explore entrepreneurial approaches, network with fellow innovators and try SAS technologies such as machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, data visualization and IoT all on SAS® Viya® powered by Microsoft Azure. The hack is a great learning-by-doing opportunity with access to the latest technology without launching an enterprise IT project.

All newly developed IP is owned by the teams – not SAS. Hackathon teams create early-stage applications and products as a showcase that can be taken into production, or further developed for the marketplace (assisted by SAS).

Are you interested in participating in the SAS Hackathon? Here are 10 reasons why you should.

Easy access to try new technology

The SAS Hackathon inspires curiosity among SAS users as well as novices and newcomers. Even open-source programmers with Python and R expertise can easily translate their skills to the SAS Viya platform.

Empowers creative solutions to unsolved problems

The SAS Hackathon is structured by industry tracks and motivates creative development of use case-centric solutions and apply them to unsolved problems.

Brings together a multitude of multidisciplinary experts

This event drives momentum to bring together a team of new multidisciplinary expertise of a data scientist, programmers, domain experts and other experts “surrounding” the use case. Because this event is digital-only, there is no need for team members to meet physically and they can team up from different cities, countries and regions.

Access to many SAS technologies

Participants will get access to the SAS On-Demand learning site that encourages learning by doing to build new skills.

Dynamic teams abound

As an enterprise just share your specific business problem and let a team of experts work on a solution to your business problem. This is a real opportunity to build new value in the ecosystem. A team can be any corporate entity – a customer, a partner, students, or even a teaming a customer with a consulting business partner and a student.

Access to industry-leading advisors

Startups with unique ideas and local domain expertise can use the SAS Hackathon as an incubator and accelerator program for an initial product. Participants will have access to global technology and industry advisors and potential support to imbed analytics and AI in their future solutions. After the competition, a lean canvas model will be used to accelerate and transform use cases from ideas to realization together with SAS market experts.

Use social media to reach broad audiences

Participants are encouraged to share their best practices on social media. And remember, part of the hackathon experience is to have fun.

Enables use of creative tools to address real business issues

Also, the developed prototypes and stories told by the teams will be viewed by a broad audience. SAS is sharing the stories in global marketing and communication channels as examples of creative use of SAS tools and innovative solutions to address real business problems.

Potential job opportunities

For corporate participants, it's an opportunity to extend their network and reach a broader and global audience with their message. For students, they can acquire new skills that can help the team and maybe a future job.

Drives innovation

The main purpose behind a hackathon is to drive innovation. This program gives people the time and space outside their jobs or classrooms to focus on a particular issue and think more widely about how to solve it. By giving people permission to "play" with ideas that are not related to their day-to-day work often results in innovation. Employees often have ideas about services or products that they would like to see, and hackathons give them the chance to lead change.

The SAS mission is to empower and inspire with the most trusted analytics. SAS Hackathon is one of our corporate flagship events and a fruitful way to engage with the new and modern SAS.