With multiple meter-long power strips plugged into electrical sockets on all four sides of the UCI Student Center Pacific Ballroom and fierce concentration driving a series of innovative projects, HackUCI 2018 was underway. From Feb. 2-Feb. 4, hackers from far and wide came to UC Irvine to participate in Orange County’s largest hackathon: HackUCI2018. For those of you who may not be familiar with the term: “hackathon”, a hackathon is an event where participants come together to create anything they can imagine, whether that’s a phone app, website, online service, or piece of hardware. It’s a space where some of the most creative, innovative, and imaginative students collaborate, code, and build new inventions in the span of several hours to several days. Sounds cool right?
This year, HackUCI received over 2,000 applications, of which 500 hackers (comprised of 36% female and 64% male undergraduate and graduate students over the age of 18) were accepted. Students came from all over the state, including UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, UCLA, and other colleges throughout Southern California. Upon checking in, students had 36 hours to put their brains at work and build something cool.
Throughout the hackathon, students had access to open source libraries and API’s (publicly available interfaces used to develop software applications). Event sponsors included the UCI Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Science, Facebook, Pariveda Solutions, Github, Google, and so on. Several sponsoring companies also came to provide their own corporate open source library software and free swag. Aside from the competition itself, students could also participate in meditation groups, cup tower building activities, and workshops.
On top of this excitement, students had access to an unlimited supply of snacks, soylent, coffee, and water. Corporate sponsors also provided 85 C bakery bread, Chipotle, sandwiches, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The only items they needed to bring were fresh ideas, a photo ID, their hacking setup, and possibly deodorant and a change of clothes. There would be no time to sleep with so much work to finish.
All participants had the option to demo their project on Sunday, Feb. 4, the last day of the event. The closing ceremony followed later than afternoon.