Hackathon attracts hundreds of students to UC campus
RevolutionUC 2018 offered “code, community and self-improvement” for all participants
A record number of students participated in RevolutionUC, the 24-hour hackathon hosted by the University of Cincinnati chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery. More than 300 participants gathered on campus March 3-4 for the seventh annual tech event.
To the uninitiated, the term “hackathon” might suggest a cyber-security breach, but this is no covert operation. It is a marathon coding event designed to teach students more creative approaches to problem-solving.
What happens when you ask 300 eager minds to design and build a new tech idea within 24 hours? Endless possibilities.
Winning projects this year provided delivered inventive responses to wicked problems:
- First place was awarded to OpenLab, a chemical reaction simulator designed to provide a safe test environment for chemistry students. The app could allow students to practice concepts in live time, without exposing them to potentially dangerous chemical reactions. OpenLab could also reduce science program costs for low-income schools.
- ApperceptionVR, a virtual reality based personality test, earned second place. Created as a response to the multitude of scientifically unfounded personality tests, ApperceptionVR guides users through a series of curated VR situations aimed at measuring their gut reactions to difficult and ethical situations.
- Digital Forensic Linguistics, a toolkit that analyzes programming languages, took third place. The tool could be used to help identify anonymous cyber criminals by analyzing digital language patterns to predict likely demographic information for the alleged offenders (e.g., gender, approximate age, and location).
These projects sound like they were engineered by top experts, but most of these student developers are intentionally working outside of their element. Many have never even used the development tools before.
It just goes to show what a difference 24 hours can make.
The event focuses on three goals: build, learn and grow. Participants' teams can choose any project topic and must “hack” together within a functional product within 24 hours. No prior experience is needed and mentors from UC and tech industries are available for consultation and guidance.
“The only thing you do need is the willingness to sit down and learn how. There is no better environment for doing that,” Lewis said.
Participants are encouraged to step outside their comfort zone. Many learn new programming language or choose a project in an unfamiliar field. Kurt Lewis, fourth year computer science student and director of RevolutionUC, feels the hackathon encourages flexibility, creativity and resiliency.
One indispensable hacking skill is “pivoting, taking what you have and making it work for something else when you find out the thing you’ve been doing isn’t going to work,” Lewis said.
Hackathons advance the computing community by inspiring innovation and encouraging collaboration. Working with industry colleagues outside of typical development parameters drives students to take risks and push the limits of their skills. Hackers also learn about ethical coding protocol. RevolutionUC requires participants to follow the code of conduct created by Major League Hacking, the official student hackathon league.
Maddie Eckhart, a second year computer science student on the RevolutionUC planning team, felt embraced by the collaborative spirit of the hackathon. She joined ACM to immerse herself in engineering culture after transferring to the College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS) from UC's College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. Eckhart says to anyone considering RevolutionUC, “You don’t need to know anything coming in. It’s a really welcoming environment because everyone is there for the same purpose."
RevolutionUC is free and open to students of all skill levels (including high school students with a guardian’s permission). Participants do not have to be enrolled at the University of Cincinnati or any computer science or engineering program. Individuals can register and join a team according to mutual project interest. Participants are rated on creativity and how much they learned as well as technical skill.
Students interested in joining RevolutionUC 2019 should check the event website in late fall 2018 for a registration announcement. For more information on the UC hackathon, please visit the RevolutionUC website or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.
Featured photo at top: the event attracts hundreds of hackathon participants. Photo/UC Creative Services.
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