Technologists, developers, engineers, innovators and business professionals and students are teaming up to fight human trafficking.

April 14-15, 2018, in Arlington, VA, individuals, companies, government and non-profit organizations are coming together to use cutting edge, emerging technologies at the Combatting Human Trafficking Challenge hackathon, the latest hackathon in the national #ExpeditionHacks innovative series created by Blue Compass, LLC.

Blue Compass, LLC and George Mason University’s (GMU) Schar School of Policy and Government – Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCC) partnered together to design and host the Combatting Human Trafficking Challenge.

Participants are using cutting edge, emerging technologies to make a real-world impact by leveraging artificial intelligence, machine-learning, augmented reality or any other creative solution.  Solutions will be evaluated and scored by our panel of expert judges, using the categories of Impact, Creativity, Design and Execution.  The winning team will be awarded a $3,000 prize and the event will unleash a series of new, innovative ideas to stop human trafficking.

In this innovative, creative hackathon environment, participants will join together, using their unique skills, expertise and experience to ideate and rapidly prototype their solutions.  At their disposal will be judges and mentors, each a subject matter expert to offer guidance and recommendations.  At the end of the 36-hour period, each team will give a live demonstration of their solution to participants, observers and the panel of judges.

Human trafficking is a global enterprise that is second only to drug trafficking as the most profitable criminal business.  It takes many forms – including labor and sex trafficking rings – and trafficking operations cross borders, languages and politics to victimize individuals into horrific, life threatening situations.

This is a cause that needs our help.  Blue Compass, LLC created #ExpeditionHacks as a platform to bring innovation to large-scale, real-world problems, in partnership with key members of academia, government and industry.  #ExpeditionHacks is a national series, with events occurring in Arlington, VA; Austin, TX; Chicago, IL, Huntsville, AL; New York, NY; San Francisco, CA; and Seattle, WA.

Blue Compass, LLC leverages #ExpeditionHacks to bring our core values of integrity, excellence, customer advocacy, learning social impact and purpose and our corporate service offerings of strategic innovation and technology solutions to deliver real-world, global-scale social impact.  We strive to make a difference every day.

We cannot do this alone.  We need partnerships and sponsors to make #ExpeditionHacks happen.  We are looking for passionate sponsors, partners, mentors and judges.  If that’s you or your organization, please contact hackathon@bluecompass-llc.com to make a difference.

For more information about Combatting Human Trafficking Challenge and #ExpeditionHacks, please visit:  expeditionhacks.com/combating-human-trafficking/.

For more information about Blue Compass, LLC, please visit bluecompass-llc.com.