An entrepreneurship-focused nonprofit based in the Borderplex's largest city is set to host a "hackathon" event focused on two target industries backed by a pair of large corporate sponsors.
The STTE Foundation, an El Paso-based nonprofit focused on entrepreneurship and education, plans to put on its second TechFlight Ventures Open AI Hackathon of the year between May 31 and June 2. Registration for the event is currently open via an online form on the Foundation's website.
A "hackathon" is a type of event where teams of software developers come together to build ideas focused on different target industries. In the case of the Foundation's upcoming hackathon, those target industries are advanced manufacturing and renewable energy, sponsored by Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and El Paso Electric Co.
Joseph Sapien, the STTE Foundation's executive director, said the three-day hackathon includes a kickoff event on Friday, idea building and workshops on Saturday and then completing the builds and judging on Sunday. Artificial intelligence has a big role to play in the hackathon, too.
AI, he said, can "accelerate development" during the hackathons.
"What traditionally would take three months now can be done in a weekend," Sapien said. "If done right. If you know how to drive the vehicle."
That's where the Foundation's Saturday workshops come in, he added, with senior, experienced developers helping younger development teams understand how to most effectively use AI tools like ChatGPT, the AI system built by Bay Area startup Open AI.
But Sapien added a lot of work happens before the actual hackathon starts. That work involves talking with industry leaders to identify "pain points" within specific categories, he said — namely, renewable energy and advanced manufacturing for the upcoming event.
Those pain points inform "problem statements" that are shared with registered teams for selection. That selection happens through a lottery system, he said.
Businesspeople then judge various teams' ideas based on how well they meet those problem statements.
"Our approach is like, 'OK, what are your business needs, let us work with talent to develop prototypes and working models of what your pain points are,'" Sapien said. "The idea is for those industry leaders to work with those young professionals to say, 'Hey, we really like what you're doing, we want to continue working on that prototype.'
"It really gets that industry leader invested into this young talent," he added.
The Foundation hosted its first hackathon event of the year, which focused on three categories — health care, community impact and education — between April 26 through April 28. It held its inaugural hackathon in spring 2023.
"We're in our thesis stage here," Sapien said. "We learned a lot from one to two, and we're keeping two and three similar."
AizenFlow, one of this year's Startups to Watch, came out of a previous STTE Foundation hackathon, he added.
"If we can replicate the model, refine it a little bit and increase the volume by two, that in theory should create multiple startups," Sapien said. "We've learned some small things, but I would say from a model, keeping industry, identifying pain points and then having talent develop that, that's the core."
