Press Pass 2: The Iron Yard Cohort 3

The Iron Yard of Durham invited me back for another Demo Day. This was Cohort 3 and the largest group of students learning Ruby on Rails, Front End Development and Python backend developer. While waiting I overhead someone here for recruiting comment:

"People with these skills can pretty much get a job where ever they want”

Here is a summary of the projects and my impression.  And for those that like to read the end of the book, I was impressed.

• Overall: MotorCo is a great venue and setup a nice environment. It was a bit crowded and expect they will need a bigger space for Cohort 4. @Theironyard #poweredbySB
• RIdeo: Tim Hooker, Jason Aylward, Alan Grissett, Dean Fitzgerald, Michael Wreath
  Want cool ride share:  http:\\rideo.wrong-question.com
  • "Just like a super hero, do bold things for the right reasons" 
  • Tech Used: AngularJS (snappy, data handling, user experience), created their own grouping algorithm for more extensibility,   
  
  Health Accountable: Bobby Erickson, Grace Kohut, Mike Marby, Thomas Midgett,
  Need more shame in your health: 
  • Nice live demo including text messages
  • Tech Used: fitbit integration, Omniauth 
  
  
  Python Clutch: Jordon Hammond, Zachary Huntington-Meath Joel Thompson and Gordon Fierce
  Find the right Python framework: http://www.pythonclutch.com/#/
  • I want to buy these guys a drink! What a great idea.  I hope it is as useful as it sounds and demos. All you need is a PyPi.
  • Tech Used: (No notes)
  
  
  ShutterBuddy: Jessica Pearce, Fallon Skinner,
  Enjoy the moment and find creative common pictures that capture it instead: <Find URL asap>
  • This reminds me of a trip to Vegas and seeing the crowds watching Bellagio through their little cameras instead of taking it all in. They factor in weather and time of day.
  • Tech Used: APIs from Flickr, tailored results
  
  
  LessonTree: Aaron Plourde, Chris Foster Elisha Hansen Schwabauer, Parker Ennis, Rocky Randalls
  Taking the cool parts of Open Source and making them available for Teachers: <Find URL> 
  • Great idea and nice application of one domain best practice (open source code) to another (education lesson plans). This was such a good idea they need a donate button to reward teachers who use it. 
  • Tech Used (apparently I was too enamored to write it down)
  
  
  betti: Benjamin Batty, Daniel Newell, Tom Rau, Bret Runestad,
  Need a way to gamble and donate! I will use this, maybe today: http://betti.co/#/
  • I can't wait to use this. I can't wait to sign up non-profits and start betting my sisters on our health goal. Nothing motivates me to eat grapes more then the idea of Meals on Wheels getting a donation! 
  • Tech Used: SSL, Stripe fro payment, facebook oath, D3 for visualization
    I am all in on Betti! This idea and presentation rocked!   
  
  
  Flowerpatch: Katie Allen, Todd Groff, Christen Haden, Lydia Joslin
  Intuitive approach to quilting design for beginner and jedi: http://www.spoonflower.com/tags/flowerpatch
  • I went from yawn to charmed during their demo. Their passion for quilting and tech came through! Clever approach to clever problems. I will be sharing this with quilting friends. 
  • Tech Used: Spoonflower api, inkscape, RSVG2 gem, fAkePI,  
  
  trialSource: Ben Roaman, Ashley Ellis, Maria Liberovsky, Nick Foster
  Pull and Push request for medical trials: http://www.trialsource.org/
• Surprising that this is not a standard solution in the industry already. I wonder how they integrate together. Overall good idea and presentation. Dealt with HIPAA 
• Tech Used: jquery, rlight,  vagrent, Virtual Box, Ansible, Amazon Web Services  

L-miner (l-miner.com): Ana Maria Echeverri, Owen Ham,

See not only your network, but your network's network in LinkedIn: https://linkedin-miner.herokuapp.com/

•  Nice clear use case and great use of visualization, especially with their modest confession of being backend developers. I have to wonder if this is related to Little Bird
• Tech USed: LinkedIn API, D3, 

TasteBud: John Mitsch, Ashley Hightman , Soloman, Jack

Use flavor preferences to pick dinner.  

• He used my second favorite word "normalize". (Second only to "pivot"). Cool idea but I like my algorithms to surprise me with new flavors. 

• Tech Used: Microservices, Django, 

Hackstarter: Zach Bradshaw, Michael Byrd, Ruben Cruz, Jonathan Parrish, Bernard Worthy 
Find and pay for tech schools: hackstarter.com

• Very polished presentation. The use case seemed familiar (kickstarter, gofundme, ...) They seemed convinced there was a unique marketing. 
• Tech Used: Stripe, D3 

Thank you Iron Yard for the invitation.  These demo days are little tech vacations for me.
And now a little music ( France Gall - Laisse Tomber Les Filles)