Utah’s first intercollegiate hackathon comes to Utah State
After 30 minutes of brainstorming, Fabio Gottlicher and Derek Hunter agreed on one thing: an idea. Grabbing markers and heading to a whiteboard, they drew diagrams and lines, figuring out how to make their idea a reality.
“It’s nice to sit down for a couple of hours and code hard,” Gottlicher said.
Hunter laughed, “A couple of hours? More like 36 hours.”
Both in their junior year at Utah State University, the two friends decided to create a date-matching app using image recognition software.
“Instead of matching a person, you see 10 or 20 random pictures from the internet, and we match you with another user if you like similar pictures,” explained Gottlicher, a computer science major.
Hunter and Gottlicher were participating in HackUState, Utah’s first intercollegiate hackathon. Hosted at USU on Nov. 6-7, the hackathon lasted from Friday at 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday.
“The students are going to build and code things with hardware or software for 36 straight hours,” said Alex Lutz, the HackUState organizer.
Over 400 students registered for the hackathon, Lutz said. Students flocked from in-state colleges like Brigham Young University and Utah Valley University, as well as out-of-state schools. Selected local high school students were invited to the hackathon as well.
Sponsored by Major League Hacking, or MLH, HackUState is just one of many international hackathons that happened last weekend.
“It’s about learning. Don’t be afraid of doing anything here, because literally the opportunities here are to do anything,” said Carl Domingo, an MLH representative at HackUState. “Everybody assumes hackathons is for the smartest or the elite people in the room, but that’s entirely the opposite case.”
Domingo started out as a college student looking for a career in computer science. Through working with MLH, he helps provide opportunities to students to pursue their own careers.
“Here, you don’t just hand in your resume. You’re making something. It’s a great opportunity for companies to understand you as a person,” Domingo said.
MLH provides many resources for schools hosting hackathons. The organization helps with tricky logistics, such as securing transportation for students traveling to the event or funding food for the hackers, said Domingo.
“These hackathons serve to help kids learn how to program and to network,” Domingo said.
HackUState provided that networking opportunity for Joseph Ivie, a junior majoring in computer science. He attended the event to work on an app to help programmers create android apps, but he also wanted to meet other hackers.
“It’s really fun to talk to all the people here and see what they’re working on,” Ivie said.
Not only were students given the chance to network, but local companies were invited to the hackathon to offer direct help and interaction with hackers.
“A hackathon is one part code party, another part career fair,” Lutz said. “It gives local companies an opportunity to get hands-on with students and work together on projects with hardware or software and really see that passion that can’t be found on a typical resume.”
Throughout the day, students worked separate or in teams to create software or programs to enter into prize-winning competitions and to present to companies. Sponsors donated cutting-edge technology for raffle prizes and for winners of the various competitions.
If students needed a quick break from working on their project, a game room and hardware lab was set up for students to explore.
Freshmen Carson Bradshaw and Michael Hixon, both majoring in computer science, were excited to come to the hackathon. Even without working on a specific project, they were impressed by the resources available for free for students during HackUState.
“We want to participate more in this next year,” Hixon said.
Lutz is already planning the next hackathon. But for now, he said he’s happy with how everything has worked out so far.
“This may sound a little cheesy,” he said. “We’ve worked so hard as a team to make this event happen, and it’s so different for this campus. I think the biggest thing for me is seeing all of our organizers happy, all of our hackers happy and having an awesome time.”
— ashley.ruth.stilson@aggiemail.usu.edu