Skopje, Macedonia

NASA SPACE APPS CHALLENGE IN MACEDONIA by NewMan's Business Accelerator

HOW IT ALL STARTED

Back in 2012 today’s CEO - Irena Chaushevska of the NewMan’s Business Accelerator traveled to one of the NASA centers in California, USA with a vision to bring this event in Skopje that at the time was taking place at around 40 locations worldwide. This became a reality just a year later and this year we are celebrating our 7th anniversary.

WHAT HAVE WE DONE BY NOW

• In 2014, the first year when the event took place in NewMan’s premises, we partnered with almost all student organisations in the country and managed to create the highest number of projects worldwide (30). Skopje was also acknowledged by NASA as one of the 10 cities with the highest number of participants (156).
• In 2015 and 2016 we spread the event across Macedonia and initiated hackathons at the University campuses in Tetovo, Ohrid and Bitola.
• In 2016 the project of the Skopje team AVIS (a smart wristband and an Android application for drone operators) became one of the 5 Global finalists for the People’s Choice award while the project of Team GG who created solar jump jet prototype concept won the 2nd place in Central and Eastern Europe.
• In 2017 Team DELTA was among the 5 GLOBAL FINALIST in the category “Best Use of Hardware”. Team SWIFT won Special Competition Award given to teams from countries with high engagement within the competition, attended 2 weeks Transfer of Knowledge in NASA Kennedy Space Center Florida, met local industry experts and came back to build a startup company in Renewable Energies, produce measurement devices and advise the Power Plants Macedonia (ESM) during the construction of National Photovoltaic Power Station.
• In 2018 NewMan's Business Accelerator helped team SWIFT to qualify among the finalists of the SpaceCom Entrepreneur Summit in Houston, Texas (USA) that took place during SpaceCom Expo.

FROM MACEDONIA TO SPACE

EUROPEAN COORDINATOR

In 2015 NewMan's BA team also initiated and supported this hackathon in several cities in Central and Eastern Europe such as Vienna (Austria), Ljubljana and Koper (Slovenia), Zagreb (Croatia), Belgrade (Serbia), Prishtina (Kosovo), Tirana (Albania) and Cluj (Romania) for where our team recruited and trained the local Leads and provided ongoing support for their teams. This opened further possibilities for regional collaboration among participants and wider promotion for the sponsors.

GLOBAL WINNER

In 2015 Irena Chaushevska was invited to attend the event Main stage for the NASA Space Apps Challenge that took place in New York where she joined the NY Space Tag team that worked with Big Data. The team managed to win the local event in New York and later was announced by NASA judging committee as one of the 5 global winners. As an award in December 2015, Irena and Anita traveled to Cape Canaveral in Florida to witness a space launch.

SILICON VALLEY HOST

In 2016 NewMan's team applied to host the Silicon Valley location and despite all odds, it won. It partnered with SAP and IBM and within a couple of weeks organized one of the best hackathons that year.

In 2017 the Silicon Valley location managed by NewMan's team was selected by NASA as USA West Coast Mainstage for the event. In addition, NewMan's team was invited to CoLead the New York location (the East Coast Mainstage) and also added Berlin on its map of locations.

NASA KIDS SPACE CHALLENGE

In addition to organising the event for participants aged 15 to 29, for 4 years already NewMan's BA teams is also organising a KIDS Space Challenge for kids and young teens aged 8 to 14. This year is the 5th anniversary and the participants will work on creating models for better rockets, rovers and space habitats.

THE PEOPLE BEHIND SPACE APPS MACEDONIA

Some of the remarkable individuals that made all of this possible are Angela Stojanovska, Filip Danilovski, Violeta Abadzieva, Vladislav Bidikov, Davor Popovski, Anita Kirkovska, Marko Paloski, Marina Tanevska, Stefan Savevski, Simona Kostovska and many more.

NASA SPACE APPS CHALLENGE - SKOPJE 2019

The hackathon this year will take part in the HQ of NLB Bank AD Skopje in the city center, from October 18th (Friday) at 15:00, up until October 20 (Sunday) at 22:00. The teams can be composed of 2 to 5 team members and they will work on challenges provided by NASA that you can check them here: https://2019.spaceappschallenge.org/challenges/

If you haven't applied already please submit your application first here http://bit.ly/NSAC_P2019 Once all your team member are approved please create your team page at this website.

The Patron of the hackathon this year is our traditional partner the US Embassy in Skopje, our Partners are the Dutch Embassy in Skopje, the French Embassy in Skopje, the Fund for Innovation and Technology Development, the Municipality Karposh, the international school NOVA.

Our Sponsors are: ESM, NLB Banks AD Skopje, Netcetera, Fx3x, Nucxleus, Next Billionaires, Tikvesh, Pivara, Gorska. Our supporters are MASIT, MMSA (Macedonian Medical Students' Association) and AIESEC.

GRAND SPACE PRICE IN 2019

THE WINNING TEAM WILL TRAVEL TO NASA KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, USA

In organization of the NewMan's Business Accelerator this year 3 members of the winning team will travel to the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA for an opportunity to witness a Rocket Launch and to meet with NASA and industry representatives. The airfare tickets will be covered by the Fund for Innovation and Technology Development.

The best 3 teams from this years NASA Space Apps Challenge will also present their projects in the frame of the Space Startups Competition as part of the Space Tech Convention that is taking place right after this hackathon.

We are wishing all of you a great success and lot of fun!

"YOUTH TICKET" for the SPACE TECH CONVENTION (21-23 October 2019)

Right after the weekend of the NASA Space Apps Challenge we are organising the transatlantic Space Tech Convention as a platform for identifying existing and new market and business opportunities in the commercial space area other than building a rocket and creating valuable partnerships and relations between its participants.

In addition it will help the young people to learn about the knowledge and skills they need to gain in order to become part of some of the companies in the space related sector from people that are only 10-15 years older but have already walked that road. We will also bring valuable discussions why is now the right time to be a Space Entrepreneur, what are the risks and how to manage them.

Having in mind that it is extremely expensive to attend this kind of events abroad, we initiated a "Youth Ticket" for our Students and Startup members aged between 15 and 29 years old so they can follow the Space Tech Conference here in Skopje for a fraction of the regular price.

You can check the full agenda of the Conference here: http://www.newmansba.com/space-tech-convention

You can purchase your "Youth Ticket" here:Purchase Youth Ticket

Here are some of the Speakers who you'll be able to meet, along with 30+ international panelists:

PARTNERS AND SPONSORS OF THE NASA SPACE APPS CHALLENGE AND THE SPACE TECH CONVENTION