ALBANY, N.Y. – AT&T*, in partnership with area universities, businesses and tech organizations, today launched the AT&T Tech Valley Civic App Challenge—a two-month “virtual hackathon” in which innovative thinkers, designers, artists, developers and entrepreneurs are encouraged to “Solve Local” by building intuitive and novel smartphone apps that address the societal and civic issues in the greater Tech Valley community. Local partners include: the University at Albany, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, TechConnex (an affiliate for Center for Economic Growth), Tech Valley Center of Gravity, Saratoga TechOUT, Hudson Valley Tech Meetup, New York BizLab, Beahive, Tech Valley Mobile Developers Network, Accelerate 518 and Hack Upstate.