This year, the NASA World Wind Europa Challenge is taking place for the first time, and motivating students and professionals from small businesses to showcase their development skills.
Spatial web applications that serve the European community will be developed. The applications have to use NASA’s open-source virtual globe technology, World Wind. Examples of applications that follow the ideas of the Europa Challenge include a wildfire management tool and a tool for a spatial data infrastructure for urban management.
The INSPIRE directive provides the framework for the spatial applications sought in this competition. INSPIRE is the European infrastructure for spatial information, that facilitates the discovery and access to spatial data as well as its exchange across European Union member states. The thematic focus of INSPIRE is on information related to environmental applications.
An example of World Wind data, of Yosemite Valley in the United States. Image Credit: NASA.
To participate in the Europa Challenge competition, application source code needs to be published until May 31, 2013.
In September 2012, a World Wind Europa Challenge summer school took place. During the three-day workshop, participants received training in the World Wind technology and on potential applications using this technology. The summer school served as exchange platform for establishing criteria used in the Europa Challenge.
The Europa Challenge is organized by NASA World Wind, the Politecnico di Milano, and the Hungarian Association for Geoinformation (HUNAGI). The challenge runs for one full academic year. It ends with honoring the winning team at the plenary awards session at the INSPIRE Conference 2013, which takes place in Florence, Italy, in June 2013.
For more information visit: eurochallenge.como.polimi.it/.