Call for Code 2018
Global Prize Celebration

Congratulations Project OWL!

Catch the Celebration replay below

With special musical guest

Local Natives

Call for Code: Global Prize Celebration

After a nearly four-month Call for Code Developer Challenge that resulted in over a thousand submissions from developers from 156 nations, the prestigious 2018 Call for Code Global Prize will be presented at The Call for Code Global Prize Celebration October 29th at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco.

This event is the culmination of the largest developer engagement in history. It celebrates the coders around the world who contributed their time, talent and creativity to develop software solutions to reduce the impact of natural disasters. A surprise musical guest will be featured and will help promote the Call for Code beneficiaries: United Nations Human Rights and The American Red Cross.

Program highlights

  • Atmospheric scientist Kait Parker, whose work has appeared on Weather.com and The Weather Channel app, will host
  • Hear a special message from actress Amber Heard, be inspired by data scientist and YouTuber Jonathan Ma (JOMA), and learn what it’s like to face a natural disaster as a first responder from Geo Blackshire, deputy fire chief, City of Palo Alto
  • Our charitable partners, including Trevor Riggen, CEO Northern California Coastal Region for the American Red Cross, and Laurent Sauveur, chief of external relations for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) will present the finalists
  • We will also be joined by Jim Zemlin, executive director, Linux Foundation and Ashley Mitchell of NEA
  • World renowned artist DJ D Sharp, the official DJ for the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors, will be on hand to spin
  • Learn more about the Top 5 Call for Code Solutions, meet the builders that created these amazing applications and learn who will take home the $200,000 grand prize and see their solution put into production through the IBM Corporate Service Corps

Want to watch it unfold?

Follow the @IBMDeveloper handle as we’ll be livestreaming the entire event from the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco. Tune in, meet the finalists, learn about their solutions and find out who will get the chance to see their solution deployed to the areas of greatest need.

Special Musical Guest

Local Natives

We are delighted to announce Local Natives will be bringing their Signature Sound to the Regency Ballroom on Monday!

Following the award segment there was a special musical performance by the critically acclaimed band Local Natives, which is comprised of Taylor Rice, Kelcey Ayer, Ryan Hahn, Matt Frazier and Nik Ewing. Two hit singles — “The Only Heirs” and “I Saw You Close Your Eyes” — followed the Los Angeles band’s 2016 full-length Sunlit Youth, which earned praise from outlets including NPR, The FADER, Entertainment Weekly, NYLON, NY Mag’s Vulture, and many more, in addition to performances on The Late Late Show with James Corden and Conan. Local Natives also completed a world tour following festivals plays that included Coachella, Primavera Sound, Hangout Festival, Governor’s Ball, and others. “As one of my favorite bands that I respect for their musical talent and social activism, I’m grateful Local Natives came out to rock the house for Call for Code and its charitable beneficiaries United Nations Human Rights and The American Red Cross,” Said Call for Code creator David Clark.

Play on Spotify

Call for Code Highlights

Top 5 Call for Code solutions unveiled

All told, more than 100,000 developers from 156 nations answered the call, creating more than 2,500 apps to help with disaster preparedness and relief. We’ve been floored by the innovation we’ve seen from these solutions. 

How your life may be saved when the next natural disaster strikes

The program, called Call for Code, asked engineers to submit working ideas that may become pivotal tools for emergency preparedness and relief. Essentially, they want to “outthink” natural disasters.

Call for Code entry: DroneAid

Call for Code’s Puerto Rico hackathon winner Pedro Cruz was inspired to answer the Call for Code after Hurricane Maria hit the island in 2017. He created a visual vocabulary that could be displayed by disaster victims and read by drones using visual recognition technology. 

3-D printed mobile hotspot helps communities after natural disasters

Project Lantern is designed to keep communities organized in pivotal moments of need. For the Call for Code challenge, team at Paper & Equator are using IBM Watson to make sense of the data collected offline and present it as a dashboard for first responders.

Chatbot aids in supplying food when natural disaster strikes

Appalled by the food waste and shortage crisis caused by the Northern California wildfires, Abhijit Basu, founder of the Silicon Valley-based communications startup Smartex, decided to answer the Call for Code and find a way to mitigate these issues that occur during natural disasters.

Kait Parker: After Disaster Strikes

Meet your host for the Call for Code Global Prize Celebration, Kait Parker of the Weather Channel. In this video, Kait shares her experience from visiting sites in the aftermath of a natural disaster. 

See More Highlights

Call for Code: By the Numbers

100K+ Developers

Answered the Call for Code

2,500+ Apps

Created to help prepare for emergency situations

2.5 Billion People

Reached by Call for Code

40+ Celebrities

Engaged to spread the word

156 Nations

Participated in the Competition

$200K in Cash

To the team that wins the Call for Code Global Prize