APOCALYPTECH
Deadline extended to April 17th!
Do you have the brain and your guts to survive the apocalypse? Show us your skills and creativity.
What is Apocalyptech?
How might we use technology and design thinking to survive during the apocalypse? Well that’s what you need to figure out! We’ve given you a starting point with the challenge prompt, but that’s not the whole story. In order to come up with a winning solution, you’ll need to fully immerse yourself in the world of AMC’s The Walking Dead and consider solutions that would work in that context. Check out the videos below from actress Lauren Ridloff (“Connie”) and Chief Content Officer for The Walking Dead Universe, Scott Gimple, to learn more about the challenge.
Competition Schedule & Rules
This challenge is open to all high school and college students between the ages of 13-24. You may participate as an individual or as a team of two. There will be two prize brackets: high school and college.
Prizes
1st place: $500 + laptop
2nd Place: $250 + laptop
3rd Place: $125 + laptop
Deadline extended: April 17th!
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Let the Apocalypse begins! Check the rules and complete the activity on your own time. Use the Activity Guide to help you navigate the challenge.
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Once you’re done, upload your project submission. All entries must be uploaded on the website by 11:59 PM EST. No exceptions.
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We will announce the winners of the challenge on the website and our social media channels!
Special thanks to our sponsors for this challenge:
The Challenge
Communication in the Apocalypse
Today is day one. The world as you know it is slipping away as it becomes overrun with zombies. You and a small group of survivors, as far as you know, are all that remains of humanity. You’ve heard stories of other communities of survivors nearby, but could they be true? How do you make your presence known without making your location more dangerous? Watch the video below from Scott Gimple, Chief Content Officer of the Walking Dead Universe, to hear more about your challenge.
Need more examples to spark your creativity? Check out these extra scenes from the show! ⬇️
How to Compete
To master this activity, you will use the design thinking process: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test, and Implement. For this challenge, we will work through the first 4 steps of the process to prototype a solution for communication during the apocalypse. Read the info below for what you must do for each phase of the competition. Once you are ready to start, download the Student Activity Guide and PPT Template to complete the challenge.
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Now that you’ve learned a bit more about The Walking Dead Universe, tell us what you learn about your users. Really try to put yourself in the user’s shoes. What key information (about them or their environment) are you going to use to help solve their problem?
Watch the example video to get more information about your users.
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Submit a problem statement in about 1-2 paragraphs. This should draw from the challenge prompt, but should be specifically tailored to describe the specific problem that you are trying to solve. Are you going to focus on one particular aspect of the prompt? Based on the users you defined in the Empathize step, what are they most concerned about?
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This is where you get to show us your creativity and make your thinking visible. Show us how you came up with your solution - write out what steps you took, take a picture of your whiteboard full of Post-It notes, upload your drawings that show the progression your ideas took, or whatever else you think will help us to understand how you arrived at your solution.
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Demonstrate your proposed solution, the one you think will best address the challenge prompt and solve your defined problem statement. Again, you can be as elaborate and creative as you like here - include a mock-up that you drew, a video where you act things out, a detailed description - whatever best suits your unique solution.
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Tell us about what you’ve learned from this experience. How can you apply the lessons of this challenge to your everyday life? Record and upload a 1-2 minute video explaining what you’ll be taking away from the Apocalyptech challenge.
This step is optional - while it will help us to better understand how the challenge impacted you, it is not required for your submission and will not be held against you if you choose not to complete it.
Need a soundtrack for the Apocalypse?
FAQs
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Absolutely! You can use whatever software you would like to complete your project - as long as the final submission addresses each of the first 4 steps of the design thinking process (Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype) according to the instructions outlined above.
**Be sure to follow the correct naming conventions with your final submission!**
“Apocalyptech Project_Firstname Lastname”
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Your project can include anything that you can reasonably justify would exist in the world of AMC’s The Walking Dead, OR that you can accurately explain how you would restore to working order. Remember, human society has collapsed - in order to use a specific technology, you must completely account for and restore all necessary infrastructure required to support that technology, as well as the technology itself.
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Typically, that would be the 5th step of the design thinking process - Test. However, unless you intend to bring about the zombie apocalypse and the collapse of civilization… you’ll have to use your imagination and arrive at reasonable conclusions. In fact, the creativity of your answers is how we’ll determine the best project submissions!
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While you do not have to build a fully functional prototype, you do need to accurately demonstrate how your proposed solution would work to solve your defined problem. While this might not be a working piece of technology or a fully implemented process, you should be able to demonstrate or explain how your prototype would function.