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MLB Advanced Media, NYC Media Lab Partner For Three-Day Hackathon

NEW YORK — Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) and the NYC Media Lab partnered for their first ever hackathon this past weekend.

Selected applicants participated in either a data visualization or virtual reality/augmented reality track, with four winners rewarded from a field of nearly 20 groups. There was a $3,000 grand prize recipient in both tracks followed by first ($1,500), second ($1,000) and third-place winners ($500).

Dirk Van Dall, Vice President of Multimedia Technology Development, said that events like the three-day hackathon allows MLBAM to not only attract potential future employees but also provide students and young professionals the opportunity to develop multimedia experiences around fans’ content consumption and engagement based on various challenge questions, ultimately answering “What’s next for the sports fan experience?”

(Courtesy of NYC Media Lab)

“I feel like Major League Baseball Advanced Media is kind of the best-kept secret in technology in New York,” said Van Dall, who added that at least 60 percent of MLBAM employees are in either technical or operations roles. “It’s been hard for us to get our message out there that we are a technology company that happens to have rights.

“These types of events allow us to one, tell our story, two, show the areas where we’re growing in and really see what young people are up to and what they can bring to the table.”

PARSONS MFADT won the grand prize in the data track as it developed a gamification platform for MLB fans to interact with in-stadium and anticipate players’ on-field results such as a home run, strikeout or hit. DellinBetancesWithWolves earned the VR/AR grand prize through its augmented reality application that allowed fans to interact with the ballpark itself.

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