Second Annual Purple Prize to Award Thousands for Tech Innovation

Purple Maia Foundation is hosting its second annual Purple Prize competition, which will give away over $80,000 in prizes including cash prizes and technology credit this October. The competition encourages diverse teams to come together to develop technology innovations rooted in Hawaiian values that serve the community.

Winning teams will be selected by a group of jurors who are thought leaders in technology, social impact, and Native Hawaiian communities. They will have a tough job, as this year's cohort of Purple Prize teams are working on projects that focus on access to data about watersheds and ecosystems, innovation in fishpond management, apps for access to food and stories of place, as well as others.

"Part of the reason for running the Purple Prize is that we really want to see projects that sit at the intersection of culture and technology move forward. We're structuring the competition to provide support to teams, mentorship, and to give them an incentive to keep building out their ideas," said Purple Maia Foundation co-founder Donavan Kealoha.

There are two events that will conclude the Purple Prize and the public is welcome to attend both:

1. October 19, 5-7pm, at Waiwai in Miliili - A pau hana and networking event after the pitch competition (private) earlier that day.

2. October 21, 9am-3pm, at University of Hawaii West Oahu - Finalists will pitch to a public audience and judges, and all teams will demo their innovations to the public. There will also be a panel on Indigenous tech innovation.

Purple Maia co-founder Kelsey Amos said, "We hope that students of UH West Oahu as well as community members will come out to meet the teams and learn and think together about responsible innovation."

A kick-off to the competition was held on March 25 at Ka Papa Loi o Knewai and Hlau nana. This event featured guest speaker Dr. Maya Soetoro-Ng and encouraged teams to form around competitive project ideas.

The Purple Prize is funded by donations from Kamehameha Schools, Hawaii Community Foundation, Datahouse, and Amazon Web Services.

Visit www.purpleprize.com to learn more about the Purple Prize and to get details on the Miliili event Oct. 19 and the UHWO event Oct. 21.

Purple Maia Foundation

www.purplemaia.org - www.purpleprize.com - kokua@purplemaia.org

Purple Maia Foundation is a technology education nonprofit whose mission is to build pathways of knowledge together with high-opportunity youth in order to help communities thrive. We teach coding and computer science in communities where many students are Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, or low-income. We support indigenous values in contemporary tech culture, and we think that by teaching our students to innovate as indigenous technologists, we can be part of a global shift toward growing more sustainable societies.

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