Personal Portfolio

NASA Space Apps Jakarta—The world's largest global hackathon held here in Jakarta with a record-high 500 participants and counting.

NASA Space Apps Jakarta is the local chapter of the NASA International Space Apps Challenge, the world's largest global hackathon. Held annually in early October, participants are given 48 hours to tackle one of NASA's dozens of challenges, which cover diverse areas beyond space, such as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the classroom or global agricultural equity. Each local chapter, including ours, awards local winners and sends global nominees to be judged by NASA on the international stage. As a local lead alongside two cofounders, I’ve organized this event for two years, overseeing both team management and social media.

My journey with NASA Space Apps Jakarta began after participating in Garuda Hacks, a previous hackathon. Inspired by that experience, my two cofounders and I applied to lead the Jakarta chapter. We were thrilled to receive the opportunity and set out to improve upon the previous event, which had only attracted a few dozen participants in 2020. In our first year, held entirely online, we attracted over 150 participants and collaborated with notable partners like @america, the U.S. Embassy’s American Center in Indonesia. We also hosted speakers from PT. Dirgantara Indonesia and prestigious institutions such as Harvard and Stanford.

In our second year, we expanded to a hybrid format with Universitas Negeri Jakarta as our offline venue partner. The event drew over 500 total signups, including 150 in-person participants. We reinvited key speakers from PT. Dirgantara Indonesia and welcomed new voices, including Rachel Sihombing, a Columbia University graduate who returned to Indonesia to found Bijak Memilih, a voter education platform for the 2024 Presidential Election. We also brought in judges from the Y Combinator-funded entrepreneurial community, ensuring that the event continued to grow in both scale and impact.

Scroll below to view our milestones and get a glimpse of where we’re headed!