What better place to incorporate a Hackathon than at World Skills, an event already bursting with energy and excitement? This year, the organization introduced a Digital Challenge with the goal to help local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with real-world problems, and show that IT-related competitions can be fun and engaging.

As part of the Digital Challenge at World Skills, students will put their technical knowledge to the test while working with local organizations to solve social problems with technology.

Fifteen local Brazilian problem solvers will join 5 past WorldSkills champions to help 5 Brazilian NGOs move social projects forward. The 4-day challenge takes place parallel to the WorldSkills competition and will leave behind a legacy.

The 5 challenges the teams will address are:

• Opportunities for youth
• Multiple disabilities game and play
• Blood donation awareness
• Recycling and social development
• Cancer patient support

Learn more about the teams and the challenges.

The increasing connections between people, process, data and things into an Internet of Everything (IoE) will require 4.5 million developers and generate$19 trillion in value by 2020. This opportunity can benefit NGOs as well as businesses. To ensure participants in the Digital Challenge understand the impact and value of IoE, Cisco Networking Academy delivered its free Introduction to the Internet of Everything course to team members via Cisco WebEx collaboration solution.

The Cisco Innovation Center in Rio also participated virtually to share real examples of how IoE solutions have been implemented in Brazil. During the Digital Challenge a Cisco mentor will be present to help advise teams on their design solutions and ensure they will have the greatest impact.

"The Internet of Everything (IOE) has the potential for enabling some amazing new opportunities for NGOs," said Joao Peixoto, Solutions Architect, Cisco Innovation Center Brazil. "These opportunities translate into services involving online monitoring of people using wearable devices for healthcare purposes; monitoring flows of people, things, and animals for dynamics analysis; and sensors for applications such as environmental, water and soil monitoring. IOE can make the interaction between NGOs and its people, data, and processes easier."

Cisco's support of the Digital Challenge includes access to Connected Mobile Experiences (CMX) enabled wifi infrastructure. This allows teams to experience IoE first hand, connect things to the Internet, analyze real-time data and build apps relevant to specific NGO needs.

In the spirit of WorldSkills, Cisco is offering the free, 20-hour Introduction to the Internet of Everything course to anyone interested in learning how the IoE will turn information into action, creating unprecedented economic opportunity.

Register for Intro to IoE free:http://csrinfo.cisconetspace.com/world-skills-day.html