Virtual Codathon: CodingMatters

Langley, BC – Are you a problem solver, a techie, an innovator, someone who is super creative? Great, because if you have some technology skills, the Township has a fun opportunity to challenge you and maybe, you can even win a prize.

Beginning on January 14, the Township is accepting registrations for a virtual codathon in conjunction with the 2021 Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) virtual Smart21 conference co-hosted by the Township of Langley and the City of Maple Ridge from February 22-24, 2021.

The Township is looking for clever and innovative technology-based solutions to challenges that our community faces. Competitors can submit project proposals to address a specific challenge from a number of pre-identified themes that are described on the codathon website tol.ca\codingmatters.

“We wanted to provide some broad themes to focus the proposals in certain areas but are leaving the specific challenges that the competitors identify wide open to see what creative and innovative ideas are brought forward,” said Steve Scheepmaker, Director of Corporate Administration.

The codathon occurs in two rounds. In the first round, competitors submit their project proposal, which is then evaluated by a panel of judges. Up to 50 competitors (or teams) will then advance to the second round of the competition where they will complete the detailed design and development work needed to deploy a functioning prototype of their solution.

The codathon is being co-sponsored by Microsoft and all developed prototypes must use Microsoft cloud technologies to better ensure that candidate solutions can be more easily leveraged by the Township moving forward.

“We need to continually find new ways to be more efficient and effective in the delivery of information and services,” said Mayor Jack Froese. “Hosting this codathon could generate some innovative and creative solutions to tackle some of the challenges that our community faces”.

The competition is open to Canadian residents 18 years of age and older until Tuesday, February 23, 2021.

Visit tol.ca\codingmatters for all of the details.

For more information and to register for the ICF Smart21 virtual conference, visit intelligentcommunity.org/events

Media inquiries on this or other Township of Langley topics can be submitted at: tol.ca/mediainquiries.