Hackathon

touch ./GRASS

A small lead brief for teams building from the Mindful Makers outdoor voice-coding theme: step away from the screen, think aloud, and return with a tighter plan for the next shippable wedge.

Printed hackathon challenge briefs arranged on a quiet desk.

Lead brief

001

Mindful Makers prompt

Walk Mode for AI Work

A quick demo idea for outdoor voice-coding: leave the desk, talk through the build, and come back with active output instead of another scroll session or a pile of half-remembered thoughts.

Low-effort journaling
For people who do not like typing, the assistant asks one spoken prompt at a time and turns rough thoughts into structured notes.
Output over scrolling
A walk becomes a small production ritual: capture the next feature, name the user, and leave passive screen time for later.
Walking-linked unlocks
Progress opens after movement or check-ins, tying planning bursts and breaks to being outside rather than sitting frozen at a screen.
Short-leash AI
AI can draft next actions, but only after review checkpoints where the human approves, edits, or rejects the plan.
End-of-walk memory
The output is a transcript, decisions made, next steps, open risks, and a mood or energy note for future planning.

Demo steps

  1. 01Say the repo or project goal before stepping outside.
  2. 02Answer three lightweight prompts while walking: user, smallest demo, likely constraint.
  3. 03Unlock the next planning burst after a movement or mindful check-in.
  4. 04Review the AI's proposed next action before it becomes coding instructions.
  5. 05Return to the desk and open the decisions, transcript, next steps, and mood or energy reflection.

Mini demo

typed stand-in for voice

End-of-walk energy

Selection rule

Start with a real person under pressure.

Make the first useful demo small enough to finish.

Let the medium shape the build, especially when the screen is not the center.

Prefer workflow proof over pitch-deck breadth.

  1. 002

    Turn messy receipts into a household repair log

    Home maintenance breaks down because parts, warranties, dates, and contractor notes are scattered across drawers and inboxes.

    Users
    Renters, homeowners, and family members coordinating repairs from different places.
    Build
    A small capture flow that turns photos, forwarded emails, and short notes into a timeline of appliances, rooms, vendors, costs, and next actions.
    Demo
    Import three fake receipts and show the system reminding a user about a filter, a warranty window, and the right part number.
    homememoryagentic
  2. 003

    Make a pre-visit brief for a ten-minute doctor appointment

    Patients often arrive with symptoms, meds, forms, and questions, then forget the important parts under time pressure.

    Users
    Patients, caregivers, and clinicians who need the appointment to start with context instead of reconstruction.
    Build
    A guided intake that distills recent symptoms, medication changes, documents, goals, and questions into a one-page visit brief.
    Demo
    Start from a week of notes and produce a printable brief plus a shorter clinician handoff.
    healthcaregivingsummarization
  3. 004

    Explain the benefits cliff before someone takes another shift

    A small income change can unexpectedly reduce public support, but most families cannot model the tradeoff quickly.

    Users
    Case workers, hourly workers, financial counselors, and local nonprofits.
    Build
    A simulator that accepts household basics and shows where eligibility, net income, and risk change as hours or wages move.
    Demo
    Compare two job offers and make the cliff visible with plain-language caveats and a shareable plan.
    civicincomesimulation
  4. 005

    Match urgent neighborhood requests to trusted capacity

    Mutual aid groups know who can help, but requests often arrive faster than coordinators can triage them.

    Users
    Community organizers, food pantry volunteers, tenant groups, and disaster-response teams.
    Build
    A private dispatcher for requests, available volunteers, constraints, safety checks, and follow-up status.
    Demo
    Route five requests with different urgency, distance, language, and trust requirements without exposing private data publicly.
    communitylogisticstrust
  5. 006

    Help a small vendor answer the same buyer questions once

    Security, accessibility, privacy, and procurement questionnaires consume weeks for teams that should be building.

    Users
    Early B2B startups, public-sector vendors, schools, clinics, and procurement teams.
    Build
    A questionnaire workspace that extracts reusable evidence, spots missing policies, and drafts buyer-specific answers from one source.
    Demo
    Answer two different questionnaire formats from a shared vendor profile and flag the questions that still need a human.
    b2bcomplianceworkflow
  6. 007

    Give student support teams one live context map

    Students with attendance, reading, health, or housing issues interact with many adults who each see only a fragment.

    Users
    Teachers, counselors, nurses, administrators, and family liaisons.
    Build
    A permission-aware student support map with signals, interventions, owners, and unresolved questions.
    Demo
    Show how one student moves from scattered notes to a coordinated plan with accountable next steps.
    educationcaseworkcoordination