Cyrus Tabrizi, an electrical and computer engineering sophomore with a long history in robotics and maker culture emphasized the importance of learning and collaboration in a recent interview. A winner of PennApps, the largest national hackathon, Tabrizi reflected on what he's learned as an active member of the hackathon culture. Though he spent his first hackathon working alone on a project, he later realized that working on a team was an even better experience because, “by having a team, all focusing on one thing, [I] could do more, and even if [I] didn’t complete a project, it was a better experience”. Teams are an integral part of hackathons, where people with different backgrounds and ways of approaching problems come together to solve a problem.
From the moment the opening ceremony begins, the events are buzzing with energy as participants eagerly await the opportunity to pull a voluntary all-nighter to work on a project they’re passionate about. Throughout the event they’ll interact with sponsors, mentors, and fellow participants all the while learning, networking, and enjoying the intense, party like atmosphere. The participants come with a wide range of goals, as Tabrizi states, “some people are just happy if they’ve learned a new language, the free food is enough for some people, or even just the atmosphere”.
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Team-forming is perhaps one of the more difficult, yet fun parts of hackathons. While some participants come with already on a team, many do not, and the event planners always provide networking sessions to facilitate team forming.
Learning is perhaps the most important of hacker culture goals. Many pick up new programming languages and skills in one intense weekend. To facilitate this, every hackathon has a system of mentors, in which experienced hackers spend the weekend cycling from group to group helping troubleshoot and brainstorm. Some, like HackCMU, accept anyone who applies while others are more exclusive. Furthermore, company sponsors often send engineers and “tech evangelists” to the event to network and instruct participants. As Tabrizi states, this is a great opportunity as “you can learn a lot from the engineers from those companies, especially alums from your school,” which breaks down the sometimes seemingly insurmountable barrier between company and potential recruit.
In addition to mentors, hackathons often provide workshops on various skills hosted by various sponsor companies. There, companies demonstrate their API's, which is basically what allows one's code to access another's information, and other services. They might provide free access codes to participants and usually offer support throughout the event.
As a result of close collaboration between company representatives and participants, hackathons are excellent networking opportunities for participants and companies. In exchange for sponsoring, companies are usually privy to the resumes of participants, and for greater pledges, can provide prizes for using their company’s technology or host workshops. The huge number of recruiters at hackathons means that these intense students have unparalleled opportunities for jobs at high flying companies and promising startups. Rather than waiting to graduate, some students take advantage of this and drop out to pursue jobs they find at these events.
At the end of each hackathon, the participants demo and present their projects. Sponsors usually serve as judges and the companies award prizes. Prizes are usually highly sought after things like Apple Watches, iPads, FitBits, Oculus Rifts, gift cards, or invitations to exclusive company parties with recruiters. While these prizes serve as great motivators, many argue that they contribute to the corporatization of hackathons. They argue that hackathons aren't about winning prizes, that they are about learning and networking.
All of the learning, networking, and excitement at hackathons creates a party atmosphere. As Tabrizi stated, “the people there are who [he]’ll see at the next hackathon, or who, when [he] graduate[s] might see at [his] job. It’s really a value to go spend time with them” especially as he noted that he’s made many of his close friends that way. Free food, drink, exciting projects, and the general feeling of a weekend away from school puts everyone in a great mood. “The Hackathon Phenomenon” even concludes that “The greatest potential and value of hackathons is in providing an opportunity for people to meet and collaborate to create new links in the medium to long term, rather than the short term focus of the event”. This conclusion was reached at the end of extensive surveying and researching case studies of hackathons, proving that the passionate and intense people at hackathons are worth getting to know. Many participants even report going to hackathons mainly to visit friends they’ve made all around the world and across the country.
Though at the moment hackathons are mainly catered towards computer science and electrical engineering students, steps are being taken to included other disciplines as well. Here at Carnegie Mellon University, The MellonHeads are a new organization seeking to do just that. Stay tuned for part two next week.
Special thanks to Avi Romanoff, Cyrus Tabrizi, and David Zhu for personal interviews.
