Officially Full Professor - Congratulations to Our Director

https://rcodi.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/69C73358-1DD8-42E7-88CB-64EF7012846D.jpg UNAL Students pose for a picture at the awards ceremony https://rcodi.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/6EEA0899-6AEB-451A-94D5-41DDFD6706C0.jpg Ironhacks staff Alejandro Vecchio poses with award winners. The National University of Colombia (UNAL) proved to be a triumphant setting once again for the Research Center for Open Digital Innovation. UNAL students participated in the Spring 2019 Purdue IronHacks competition and were challenged to create an app to help university students find safe and affordable housing in the New York area. For the first treatment group, José Fernando Morantes Florez, Jhonatan Sandoval Velasco, Juan Pulido won first, second, and third respectively; Cristian Adolfo Baquero Pico, Cristian Alejandro Mantilla Duque, and Julián David Rodríguez Ruíz won first second, and third respectively for the second treatment group. With the support from the National Science Foundation and other partners such as Amazon, Red Hat, and the state of Indiana, Purdue IronHacks has undoubtedly made its impact on the global open data movement. no-repeat;center top;; Professor Nicolás Múnera Garzón, a professor at the UNAL whose students participated in Ironhacks, said he was grateful for the opportunity it provided. no-repeat;center top;; “Purdue IronHacks was a great experience for me as a teacher. Students enrolled in the software engineering class with me didn’t only learn about the common approach about crafting software that fulfills all technical requirements, they learned also this real need of delivering for real users,” Garzón said. “I’m glad and thankful that we worked with incredible people up there at Purdue. The team was always attentive and supporting making the experience even better, so I take this opportunity just to say, thank you! All of you, Alejandro, Sabine, Sebastian… All of you who were involved with this initiative!” no-repeat;center top;; The IronHacks team has already received emails asking for Ironhacks to continue one more year. no-repeat;center top;; Below, you can find a testimonial video of our winner, Cristian Aldolfo. no-repeat;center top;; About Ironhacks: IronHacks is an 8-week class that combines active learning and app development with a real-world open data competition. It was designed to make hackers familiar with open data released by federal agencies and corporations. Further, it aims to trigger user-centered design of data-driven interfaces with graphs and maps that support end-user decision making. During the 5-stage iterative virtual competition, students utilize open data to create novel and useful online applications (apps) for citizens in areas such as housing, healthcare, etc. Competing participants have access to tutorials, standardized libraries and packages, and virtual help sessions. While they are engaging in an active learning process, their apps are being evaluated using automated techniques and expert judgement. Real time and targeted feedback accelerate their learning process as well as improve their programing skills and their ability to hack complex problems with open data and open standards.