“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower,” digital revolutionist Steve Jobs once said. And roughly 150 innovators put their leadership skills to the test at the Hackathon Feb. 17-19. The first of its kind at Stony Brook University.

"We never did a hackathon," DoIT Web Programmer/Analyst Richard von Rauchhaupt said. "They weren’t a thing when I was a student. We did land parties and social events but we never thought about social coding. So I think just the idea of idea sharing is huge."

And share he did. Raucchaupt brought his smart mirror to the event, which he created with an old TV and the mirror from his bedroom dresser.

"The hackathon itself is based on the internet of things," Rauchhaupt said. "And I think the mirror itself can be kind of like served as a hub of innovative things and devices, so if you have different sensors throughout your house, you’ll be able to look at the mirror and see, you know, what the temperature is in a certain room or did your hot water just burst and you have a warning going off."

Rauchhaupt served as a mentor for the participants who were each given 43 hours to invent software solutions to micro-services challenges. Like Bumsik Kim, a SBU computer science major, and his partner who also delved into home improvement with a web application that can control multiple devices.

"It’s basically a home automation project," Kim said. "We can control the lights or other electronics automatically."

But the hackathon wasn’t just for inventing.

"The prospect of networking and working together and meeting new people is really endless and it creates tremendous value," CEWIT Programs/Communications Coordinator, LeeAnn Lassogna, said. "It’s really, it’s just endless and just getting everybody together and collaborating in one joint environment is really the huge impact that we’re trying to make."

Students could interact with professionals from companies like healthcare engineering company Softheon, which co-hosted the event.

"We are an engineering company and we take pride in disrupting," Softheon CEO, Eugene Sayan, said. "In our case, we are disrupting healthcare."

That disruption comes from new faces and fresh minds.

"It’s always great to have somebody with no knowledge of healthcare in a way that kind of outside of box thinking process, right, because healthcare is one of those slow-moving industries," Sayan said. "You hardly see any innovation."

In the midst of all the accusations against Russia hacking the election, here is the good side of software sorcery. So, hack on computer wizards, hack on.