New York’s MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) and AT&T are teaming up to kick off this year’s MTA App Quest with a weekend hackathon powered by NYU Poly and ChallengePost!

This two-day event invites hackers to show off their skills while solving real-world problems and enhancing the transit experience of MTA’s 8.5 million daily riders - and compete for $50,000 in prizes! ($10,000 will be awarded to hackathon participants and an additional $40,000 will be awarded at the end of the virtual challenge.) Use the MTA’s public data and APIs to build smartphone apps that:

• Provide transit visualizations of timetables, service alerts, real-time feeds, and information about capital projects, operations and other vital MTA programs
• Augment in-station way-finding, particularly for people with disabilities
• Integrate MTA services into other application workflows (calendars, e-mail programs, etc.)
• Illuminate, score and personalize the carbon-footprint reductions gained by using buses, subways, regional rail and combinations of those modes

• Leverage the increasing availability of cellular phone service on the MTA network to create data-driven models of train and bus performance and customer flow

• Are creative, functional, and engaging

After the weekend, your hack will be automatically entered into the multi-month, virtual app challenge (details to come), which is open to all hackathon attendees as well as the developers across the globe. You can keep working and updating your app until the virtual app challenge submission deadline.

Register now! Spaces will be offered on a first come, first served basis so sign up now and start brainstorming your app ideas. Keep an eye out for updates and details, which are coming soon! Don't forget to tell your friends using #AppQuest!

Basic Requirement for Prizes:

• In order to win a prize you must be an individual (or team of Individuals) who is 18 or older.
• Submitters who are employed by the MTA, AT&T, or ChallengePost are not eligible for prizes.
• The app(s) you submit must be newly created during the hackathon weekend.