We are pleased to announce the following winners of the Analytics Hackathon.

First Place
Carmen Schwesinger

Submission Summary
Using the 2012 Budget Consultation Survey, this submission is a presentation of the results. It was designed to help with making governance decisions in the City of Edmonton that better reflect what is on the minds of Edmontonians versus what is currently in the Strategic Plan.

Second Place
Dario Iacchelli

Summary of Submission
The objective of this Data Analysis Journal is to document the process of analyzing Alberta Health Services (AHS) facility visit data and Alberta Weather data to see if any correlation can be made between key weather trends, patient visits and survival rates.

The results of this analysis could help AHS better predict facility loading due to forecasted or current weather conditions. Since facility loading directly effects staffing requirements and overall operation costs this data could potentially help predict future changes in operating costs based on a general climate changes. If significant correlation is found in the data it could prove useful for choosing the future location of AHS facilities based on weather-related demands.

Third Place
Jon Fung

Summary of Submission
Team goal differential has been used in hockey and other sports like baseball to predict win percentage. Accuracy is an issue with these methods however, since it only takes one goal to win or lose a game, and subsequent insurance goals for or goals against can distort the forecasted win percentage.

Quality of goal differential has predicted 7 of the last 8 Stanley Cup finalists and all 4 winners.

Winner of Best Use of AESO Data
Scott Dick

Summary of Submission
Our focus in this report examines the relationship between two of the variables in the AESO dataset: the hourly pool price (wholesale cost) for electricity, and the hourly AB internal load (the actual demand for electricity), see Figure 1. It is generally expected that, as demand rises, the wholesale cost of electricity should also rise; the mechanisms behind this include the expense of bringing reserve generation assets on-stream and operating them for high-demand periods, importing power, etc. These increased costs will then be passed along to retail customers. However, when we examine the AESO dataset, we find that between Jan.1, 2000 and Dec. 31, 2011, the relationship between electricity wholesale prices and demand was very weak; and in fact, the wholesale price appears to be far more dependent on supply-side factors. This is an important finding that directly bears on the development of Smart Grid technologies; if electricity costs are indeed insensitive to demand, the economic underpinnings of the demand pricing model could be fundamentally flawed.

Winner of Best Use of City of Edmonton’s Open Data
Adam Henley

Summary of Submission
Since 2009, Alberta Health Services targeted reductions in emergency department (ED) wait times as a key goal. Edmonton hospitals do not publically release ED usage statistics, which has created a need for consumers to understand which factors predict city ED utilizations. Our analysis observes that ED burdens are increasing susbtantially in Edmonton, and that this is impacting different hospitals to a different degree. Specific weather and city-related environments were found to influence these trends in Edmonton, Alberta.

Winner of Best Use of Edmonton Oiler’s Datasets
Jon Fung

Summary of Submission
Team goal differential has been used in hockey and other sports like baseball to predict win percentage. Accuracy is an issue with these methods however, since it only takes one goal to win or lose a game, and subsequent insurance goals for or goals against can distort the forecasted win percentage. Quality of goal differential has predicted 7 of the last 8 Stanley Cup finalists and all 4 winners.

Thank-you to our sponsors!

Edmonton Oilers

City of Edmonton IT Department

Darkhorse Analytics

We’re excited for this next edition of DemoCamp Edmonton, number 18. We had lots of demos to choose from, so here’s who we picked to show and tell tonight:

The Peregrine Glove – www.theperegrine.com
Signia – www.signia.ca
Technitone – www.gskinner.com
Backup Box – www.mybackupbox.com
xGen – www.xgenstudios.com
Plan Hero – www.planhero.com
Life Goes On – www.lifegoesongame.com

The action begins tonight at 6:45 pm at TELUS Centre 150 at the University of Alberta. Drinks and good times to follow at Original Joes Varsity. Sign up here if you haven’t already and we’ll see you tonight!

Thinking about applying to our new Flightpath Accelerator Program this summer?

Preflight is a part-time, 4 week pre-accelerator workshop that helps “pre-startups” in Edmonton take those first early steps to become fully-fledged startups. Perhaps you’ve already started building something at a hackathon? Maybe you’ve been working on a concept late nights and weekends? Maybe you’re looking for a co-founder to round out your team? Preflight helps you build what you’ll need as you make a commitment towards becoming a full-time startup. Maybe you’ll apply to Flightpath or another accelerator program somewhere in the world. In either case, your journey to a full-time startup life begins here.

Dates: Spring (March 19, 2012 to April 17, 2012)
Time: Part-time, evenings and weekends, plus courses/meetups on Mondays (5:30-7pm) and Wednesdays (5:30-9pm) over 4 weeks
Program fees: $499 per participant (you’ll get a weekly group dinner, two mentor sessions a week, two evening courses, and a drop-in membership for two months (value of $250) in our new downtown space to work on your startup)

Preflight registration is open, so apply today »

Looking to hone your skills and knowledge as you get your startup rolling? We're excited to announce our new lineup of startup courses and workshops – for entrepreneurs, taught by entrepreneurs. Whether it’s connecting with other startups, building a product, or reaching out to customers, our courses and experienced industry mentors help get your startup rolling.

From evening courses to day long workshops, here's a sample of what we’ve got in store:

Entrepreneurship + Startup Courses

Activate Your Startup: Taking the First Step
Business Model Generation for Startups
The Hacker Way: Lean Product Development for Startups
Building and Managing Your Community
Customer Development for Startups: More Than Just Sales

Technology + Building Courses

Everybody Can Code: Programming for Non-Programmers
Developing in Rails
Developing Apps for iOS (Advanced)
Introduction to Android Development

Design + Creativity Courses

Long Live Rapid Prototyping
Designing for Mobile
Great Landing Pages That Convert
Designlab: Cross-Platform Storytelling

Spring Session begins April 2012 and registration for all courses is open now!
Sign up today »

P.S. Members in our space get 15% off all courses and workshops. Bonus! 

Join us for a special event next week presented by Startup Edmonton, iNovia Capital, and our friends at GrowLab in Vancouver.

What makes you different from other entrepreneurs trying to build start-ups? You are competing with thousands of entrepreneurs for the same resources, talent, and capital. How are you going to make sure that you attract the best people and funding? Is it about who you know or is it about how great your product is or the reach you have in the community?

It’ll be an awesome chance for local startups to meet and hear from Jason Bailey, one of the founders of GrowLab, and CEO of East Side Games, along with Kevin Swan, Principal at iNovia Capital and also a mentor at GrowLab.

Date: Wednesday, February 22 (5:30-7:30pm)
Location: Hudson’s Downtown – 11248-104 Avenue
Cost: No cost, food provided, cash bar

Space is limited, so register today at http://growlabedmonton.eventbrite.com.

The latest edition of Startup Hackathon + Global Game Jam wrapped up on Sunday night. 94 attendees formed 18 project teams and worked straight through the weekend powered by no sleep, lots of sugar, caffeine, and pure creative adrenaline. The result was an amazing collection of app and game prototypes created in the span of a weekend.

The demos (we’ll do a more detailed description with screenshots and links in the coming week):

• Open Appointment – Online booking agent for service providers
• Rezcue – A co-op megaman style platform game
• Escape from the Wolf’s Lair – A 2d castle wolfenstein game
• DreamCache – iPhone app for tracking and tagging dreams
• How to Save the World in 2012 – Choose your own adventure for the new iBook platform
• Family Emergency – Connecting family members with a single number
• Pitch Your Cause – App to connect donors with ideas and charities
• Threads – 3d puzzle game, mind boggingly awesome
• Tonari – Connecting people to exchange/share tasks with their community neighbors
• Giving Elf – A game to educate kids about charitable giving
• Zed Defense – Protect yourself from the zombie apocalypse
• Zombie Safety – Location based zombie survival game using QR codes
• BackupBox – A service to hook FTP up with Dropbox
• Space Fisherman in Space – A game that is exactly what the title suggests
• Purrdy.io – PDF generation as a service – generate PDFs right meow
• Hooked on Campus – Connecting students with each other on local campuses
• Life Goes On – Morbid 2d puzzle game where you use your dead corpses to advance
• Chaos Bomb Extreme – A game featuring bombs, air hockey and plenty of chaos

Some photos from the event (more to come soon!):

Startup Hackathon + Global Game Jam - Jan 2012
By Startup Edmonton  |  View on Facebook

Shout-outs – give our supporters some love

Event sponsor – TEK Systems
Student sponsors – XEA Services, Quercus Solutions and Digital Alberta
Prize sponsors – BioWare, Garage Games, Unity, and Guru Digital Arts

What a great weekend! 54 hours, 94 attendees, 18 teams, and one awesome demo night made for a super successful 2012 edition of Startup Hackathon + Global Game Jam. We hope you all had a blast making, creating, coding, and (not) sleeping.

Tell us about what you created!

As a follow up, we’re looking for some additional info from all attendees/teams. If you could complete the following form asap, that would be awesome. We’re looking to do a profile on every single project to share with the community soon.

http://www.startupedmonton.com/programs/hackathon-feedback

Where do I go from here?

So you built the first version or prototype or level of your app or game, and got a chance to meet and work with other cool and talented people on your teams. So what’s next? Here’s our suggestions for where you could go from here:

1. Organize another meetup/hackday on a weeknight or weekend. Could be somewhere on campus, at a coffee shop, or at someone’s kitchen table. Our friends at Guru can make some space available for you. Just find a way to get the team together again to keep working.

2. Decide what (and when) you’ll launch. Many of the demos we saw were nearly ready for primetime (i.e. a version that you can let people try out, play, and download). Get feedback sooner and use it to refine what you’ve created. Hey, maybe we’ll even see you at our next DemoCamp in March or GamePub night? (nothing like deadlines…)

3. Create a partnership agreement. Doesn’t have to be something super crazy, but some sort of document where everyone agrees to the next steps. We can help you here, just shoot us an email.

4. Keep us posted on your progress. We’d love to hear how you’re doing!