Exploring the Future @ Hackathon

Documenting the progress of launching an affordable housing app

For a class project I proposed designing a new model of student living that is low cost, sustainable, and most importantly, maximizes student health in the face of the near impossibility to affect positive change through any other means:

The affordable student housing app, ASH.

There was no way way I could launch the ASH app in a timely manner on my own, so building a student team, getting real help, took priority. Meeting with my marketing manager, she made it clear that the best way to build a team to go to the places they're looking for me, like the upcoming Hackathon:

The CTSC Health Hackathon is an opportunity for both novice and experienced inventors to use their skills and creativity to develop innovative healthcare solutions.

I'd like to share the creative process that led to creating the affordable student housing advocacy group this past weekend at UNM's Healthcare Hackathon:

Travel five years into the future, and imagine that you've succeeded beyond your wildest dreams ... Pretend you're working for a newspaper or a magazine and you're writing an article describing these events.

“Exploring the Future” page 102 in Sawyer, K. (2013). Zig zag: The surprising path to greater creativity: John Wiley & Sons.

Six Teams Competed for $10,000 of Pilot Program Funding

"It all started in 2022 ...

I went to Hackathon with the mindset of collaboration and team member recruitment.

The goal was simple: just pitch the affordable housing app for students and it will attract the right people.

The 60 second pitch I gave on day one was written to recruit dedicated students and faculty that felt a commitment to innovate student housing for good.

After the pitch, six people joined Team ASH. Over the hackathon weekend,

our fresh team of student housing activists surveyed users, hacked together - and tested - a prototype of an innovative student housing app we wish existed sooner.

On the final day, our group gave a 5 minute pitch to the Hackathon judges and we were awarded a ten thousand dollar pilot grant from UNM to pursue app development and launch for Fall 2022.

We're on our way and need to grow our team!

Join us in doing something for ourselves:

@ ash_affordablestudenthousing on instagram

or email me directly afwalla at unm .edu

-Tony