Silicon Valley - the hacker dream at the world's largest education hackathon!

I recently wrote a brief introduction to what a hackathon entails, and after having attended the world's largest education hackathon - HackingEDU, my own veteran perception of the institution of hackathons changed immensely.  

A big scale hackathon is a mix between a circus, a conference, a festival, a show room, a LAN party, a lecture and a cafeteria.

It is interesting to see how hackathons have developed from an event with a very specific objective, to a major social gathering of sorts, with room for anyone and everything e.g. people wearing panda costumes, blow up lean chairs with cup holders (YES you read that right) and outdoor blow up ball matches. It is all about having fun while being a part of something bigger than yourself
- The future...

HackingEDU day I
I got off work at 5:30 (YES) just in time to go straight to San Mateo Event Center for dinner and key notes. I car pooled with my coworkers who were also competing for some of the $110K in prizes. The $110K may seem like a lot but in reality they are split up into pools in increments of however many API suppliers and challenge offerings are represented at the event. The best individual prize from a monetary perspective was IBM, offering $5K to the best blue mix usage, and from a professional view, the interview with the 500's to the HackingEDU's 1st prize winner was truly an incredible opportunity to scale your idea to the next level. 

We arrived, and saw shuttle busses lined up outside coming from all over the state of California, representing students and grads alike, ready to expand their portfolios. To this day I still feel incredibly proud when I see young people prioritizing their weekends and time on learning experiences, that many would consider strenuous compared to going to the movies, or other effortless initiatives (not saying that the movie theatre is a bad place to go, but you get the picture). It felt like we were going to a concert, ticket checks, wrist bands and finding that perfect seat, were all components in the initial infrastructure. 

The opening night kicked off the next 48 hours' intense assembly tape of young talent coming together to build and form teams around ideas that inspired them.  The event had a rough start with spotty wifi connection, and major audio hurdles, that made the structure a bit loose. How was this going to play out...

HackingEDU day II
I saw this event mostly as a chance to inspire, learn, coach, explore, and connect with young unspoiled minds, and boy did I meet some intimidatingly smart people.

Is it odd that I consider them my peers, even though some of them are more than 10 years younger than me?

For some reason I feel closer connected to young generations' limitless mindset, than my adult network of sceptics and realistic thinkers at times. I met three high school guys who were not there to strictly build, but also to explore the virtual reality toys HackingEDU was renting out. Oculus VR and Samsung's VR version (virtual reality goggles) were super popular components accompanying IoT hardware for many of the hacks that were developed throughout the event. Check out my pic below - so surreal!! Can't wait for the future!! 

I spent a lot of time geeking around with Oculus tech with these 3 guys from UC Santa Cruz who were just as excited as I was about the unknown capability and future of technology. 

Another highlight from this day was a D3.js workshop presented by Bob Monteverde, an Analytics software engineer from the company Chegg (If you attended college within the past 5 years - you know the company) and what he was able to show and teach and share within an hour; from an entire heat map extension build demo to inspiring his audience with the many opportunities data visualizations offer - I was impressed (+ inspired). 

HackingEDU day III
The final day of hacking stroke, and over 250 projects were launched for demos on San Mateo Even Center's gigantic show floor. What these kids have managed to come up with absolutely blew my mind! Some of these young people had traveled from all over the country to live out their hacker dreams in the land of no limitation - Silicon Valley.

Just to mention a few of the projects that I personally took notice of was the three 15 year old boys from Bellarmine High's computer science club above, who developed a virtual sensor library for kids like themselves taking computer science classes, eliminating the necessity of having to buy expensive sensors individually to follow the curriculum. 

These are the kind of wiz kids who you know are going to steel your job very soon - and that is awesome to come across! 

Another amazing project was developed by three Californian college guys and was basically a virtual wallet for your change to make a change - hence the project name Change. Whatever x cents you would need to hit the whole dollar amount for each transaction on your credit card would go to this virtual wallet that allows you to donate your tax refundable charity dollars towards anything else than Uncle Sam.

Hack wrap up
I am eternally grateful to have witnessed so much brain juice being cold pressed and squeezed for every drop throughout this weekend. I consider myself blessed to be able to encourage, mentor, and support the hacker dream through my work, and yes through most of my spare time as well. Seeing young people's confidence in themselves and their capabilities is indeed my passion, and I can think of nothing else that brings greater reward than being a part of this growth! 

So to sum this up - hackathons are not just for hardcore developers creating the future. It is for those who care about tomorrow, and strive to be a part of a positive change and impact on the world through technology. 

T(ha)n(ck) you for read(.me)ing :) 

Check out the submissions if you are curious to see what was built at HackingEDU here