As both one of the organizers and participants, I have to admit I’m glad it’s over. The Hackathon was one of the most grueling 18 hours (and weeks leading into) of my life.
It was also a tremendous success.
The combined efforts of IEEE, UPE, the CSUA and ST@B this year brought in record attendance – more than double last year’s finishing entrants.
Our judging panel was par none. I watched in mixed horror and admiration as students defended their design choices against the constructive interrogation of Professor Brian Harvey and the representatives from Y-Combinator, Kinfo, Palantir, and Facebook.
But more important, perhaps, was the personal experience of being a participant.
Me, post 5 RedBulls and 7 Mountain Dews.
I am not actually a terribly experienced programmer, and this was the first time I tried to pit my nascent abilities against the challenge of creating something completely novel, original, and mine. I’ll admit it here – my project never worked.
What did work was the instigation to try, and the fact that even my failure gave me enough experience that I’m going to get this 3-dimensional computer vision control problem working if it kills me. The camaraderie wasn’t bad either. Struggling with everything you have while simultaneously fighting off 36 hours sans sleep is an experience that can’t be compared. It brings you closer to your teammates. Makes you laugh at very silly things. Sometimes mildly hallucinate…
Finally, and of greatest impact I think, was seeing some of the pretty tremendous achievements Cal students are capable of. Whether it was the winning web-based remote application toolkit, 3D news visualization, or the whimsical defense-of-stack in missile command – the intelligence and possibility crammed into one room was palpable. I have to say it was a pretty great feeling to be associated, even loosely, with the creative process taking place.
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