Geekdom Facilitate Tech Solutions For Real-World Local Problems
With the aim of embracing local talent to find solutions to bothersome community issues, tech co-working space Geekdom have partnered with San Antonio’s Office of Innovation to launch CivTechSA. This new program will provide students and startups with 16-week residencies to build innovative technologies to help solve the city’s infrastructure problems. At the end of the residency, the city will choose whether they want to purchase the product, allowing budding entrepreneurs to profit from their hard work.
The project is already surfacing some fantastic ideas. One solution includes an alert system to help with the city’s stray dog issue. It notifies users when dogs arrive in nearby animal shelters in case a perfect match comes up! Other ideas range from a sorting chute for recycling plants to improving public transportation services.
Geekdom Programs Director Dax Moreno stated that, “There’s a real hunger, I think, for the startups that are inside of the community to solve not only real world problems but problems that are happening today… People want to program and code, but they want to program and code with a purpose.”
As part of CivTechSA, community events will be hosted to foster entrepreneurial development and educational institutions will be encouraged to create new technology to help other students and the community. Geekdom may also host a ‘code-a-thon’ where entrepreneurs and programmers work together to build software solutions over just 48-72 hours.
San Francisco and other cities will also receive CivTechSA residencies to cultivate local talent and grow the startup ecosystem. Did you know that startups developing new technologies are able to claim up to 13.5% of their eligible research and development expenditure with the R&D tax credit. To learn more about this credit, contact Swanson Reed R&D Tax Consultants or take our online eligibility test to find out whether you qualify.
