SP0116: CodeJam

Every year, the Faculty of Computer Science at McGill coordinates an event called "Code Jam" wherein students are invited to team up and prove their programming skills in front of a panel of professional judges to be awarded a $1 000 grand prize, as well as a chance to network with professionals and sponsor. This year, Pulse Energy has teamed up with the McGill Energy Project as sponsors of the event.

The Pulse Energy monitoring system at McGill University is a powerful monitoring platform that records live energy and steam consumption from various buildings on the McGill campuses. The software that records this data has an internet-enabled API platform that can be manipulated to create unique programs such as the McGill Energy Map. McGill Code Jam 2013 opened up the Pulse Energy API to the participating students and challenged them to create a program focused on improving sustainability via energy use.

In previous years, the corporate sponsors of the event had dominant control over what the challenge of the competition would be. In 2013, resources from the SPF were used to ensure that the core focus of the competition could be improving sustainability via energy at McGill, using the McGill campus as a living-lab for the challenge question. As a core sponsor of the event, the SPF helped pay for promotional materials, food, and prize money.