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Hackers face off at Texas A&M hackathon [The Eagle, Bryan, Texas](Eagle (Bryan, TX) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 25--More than 400 students from across the state camped out overnight Friday with their computers for a 24-hour "hack" at Texas A&M University's Rudder Auditorium. But not to worry -- no university security computer systems were breached as a result of the event, because according to Major League Hacking Co-Founder Jon Gottfried, the event held by TAMUHack is a new breed of computer hacking. "It's really a creative exercise," Gottfried said. "Hacking has some different connotations and I've heard them all, but hacking in terms of security is not what these events are about at all. Hacking in the sense of these events actually refers to finding solutions to a thing." At a MLH-sponsored hack, students have 24 hours to think of an idea or a problem and use computer programming and hardware interfacing to find a solution. They can group into teams of four competitors or compete alone and are only allowed to bring laptops and chargers. The hack kicked off Friday at 7 p.m. and will continue through Saturday night at 7 p.m. with project demos, judging and prizes. Event sponsors such as Google, Microsoft and AT&T have representatives at the event to hold tech talks and provide application program interfaces to contestants. Widely used smartphone apps such as GroupMe and Tinder are products of hackathons that take place every weekend around the country. Contestants at hackathons have even created software that interfaces with an armband that can control a skateboard with the flick of a wrist. MLH's mission is to get young minds who share a love for technology and programming from novice to advanced skill levels under the same roof and inspire the next generation of technology developers. "Hacking's mission is to spread the hacker ethos to every student on the planet," Gottfried said. "We really believe that every student, no matter where they go to school or what resources they have access to, should at least have the opportunity to learn these amazing skills. The ability to write software and create hardware is one of the most empowering skills on the planet today because it's part of every facet of life." TAMUHack Co-Founder Rafa Moreno, a computer science major at Texas A&M, has taken part in 13 hackathons before hosting a major MLH event and started working a year ago to bring MLH to College Station to build a community of hackers and get them exposure to other hackers and big-name sponsors. "A lot of times, employers won't even look at your resume," Moreno said. "They'll ask what kind of project they've worked on and this event really helps them market themselves." According to Gottfried, the learning opportunity benefits sponsors and competitors as well. "Dell is one of our main sponsors and they realize these students are doing amazing things and there is an opportunity to learn from them," he said. "Often times students who have never done technology before have really creative ideas because they aren't held down by all of the previous thinking of how things should work." By grouping hundreds of students in a massive brainstorming session, it helps bust the lonely geek stereotype. "Programming isn't a solitary pursuit," he said. "When people think about programming, they think of some nerd in their cubicle writing code until 5 a.m., and that certainly happens, but the reality is that it's an extremely social pursuit. When you think about product development and technology, a lot of it has to do with interacting with people and figuring out how they want to use things by working on a team and all of those things come through in hackathons." MLH coach Justin Brezhnev made the trip from Los Angeles for the event and started an impassioned "I believe that we will hack," chant to the rhythm of the U.S. soccer mantra during opening ceremonies. He said that if competitors looked to their neighbors in Rudder Auditorium, they could be looking at the next tech startup co-founder or future tech tycoon. "What gets me so pumped up is that you're probably going to see one of the most viral companies come out of one of these events," he said. "I look into the audience and I know that there's going to be at least one person who raises a bunch of money and makes a gigantic impact on the world. The next five Zuckerbergs aren't going to be found in a dorm room. They'll be found at a hackathon." ___ (c)2014 The Eagle (Bryan, Texas) Visit The Eagle (Bryan, Texas) at www.theeagle.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |