York College hosts first-ever hackathon

Nearly 80 students from around the country participated in York College’s first-ever hackathon this weekend.

The event involved coding, creating and learning for 36 hours straight at the Yorktowne Hotel from Friday into Sunday afternoon by students from York and across the country, guided by the executive director for the college's J.D. Brown Center For Entrepreneurship, Jeff Vermeulen.

Vermeulen said that the event was born when three of his students came to him and suggested the idea, enthusiastic about setting up a hackthon. They were Alyssa McDevitt, a computer science major; Joe Beck, an electrical engineer major; and Kyle Musco, a computer engineering major.

“After looking into what a hackathon actually was and educating myself on it, I really liked everything about it," Vermeulen said. "I figured this would be a great opportunity for students from across the country to descend on York, and look at innovative solutions to problems facing communities, non-profits, in addition to public and private sectors."

"I really felt an event like this could really give us the opportunity to showcase York and who we are,” Vermeulen added.

After almost a year of discussing and planning the possibilities of hosting an event of this magnitude, adviser Vermeulen and students McDevitt, Beck, Musco and Dan Mashuda, a YCP computer science graduate, began to spread the word and at one point last week had almost 300 registrants interested in attending.

Some participants in this weekend’s event included students from York College, Virginia Tech University, George Mason University and Penn State University, among other well-known institutions nationwide.

Throughout the Yorktowne hotel ballroom, students could be seen working together in teams on innovative and creative projects ranging from using an Oculus Rift (a virtual reality viewing device) to create different forms of virtual reality to learning how to create an app on iPhone and Android devices.

Pranav Jain and his team created an app that, in his words, "essentially helps the user see the risk of crime in their current location" using coding, historical data and artificial intelligence to help predict where danger zones are.

“We are going on 3 hours on sleep since the hackathon started,” said Jain, a Penn State Harrisburg sophomore. “We have been trying to get everything up to speed and are kind of on a roll and don’t want to stop."

In addition to creating, learning and innovating, hackathons can also be a great way to show skill sets to employers for potential internship opportunities or jobs post-graduation.

“It’s always a good feeling knowing something you worked so hard on for 36 hours is something everyone likes,” Jain said. “But it’s also really cool because after all this, we can use what we created in our portfolios. Coming to a hackathon like this lets me show employers what I can do, and what I have actually created within a short time span, which is really important—that’s what they want to see.”

Robin Kuhns, a sophomore computer engineering student from Clarkson University traveled from Potsdam, New York, nearly 800 miles away, in anticipation of the YCP Hackathon event.

“My friends on Facebook started talking about the event, and as soon as I heard about it, I knew I wanted to attend,” said Kuhns. “I really like the whole atmosphere of positive thinking and creativity at events like these. I find that being with other like-minded people who are motivated and want to get stuff done fosters creativity and promotes good work ethic within myself. I am also able to present what I created to internships I apply for, which could in the end help me possibly get a job.”

Kuhns says he and his team were working on creating a platform that will bring people in communities like York together.

“We are working on an incubator-like program, kind of like a ‘hacklab’ where people in the community could get together and share their ideas in one place,” explains Kuhns. “We have learned there are so many unused warehouses in the area, and I think that utilizing those areas to get people together and create business ideas to help build a better and more innovative community could be beneficial in a small town like this.”

YCP Hackathon partnered with The Major League Hacking Group, who represents and trains colleges interested in hosting hackathons nationwide. The event also partnered with J.D. Brown Center For Entrepreneurship, Johnson Controls, The York County Community Foundation and Brand Makers along with many more reputable local companies.

At the end of the hackathon, three winning teams were chosen for ‘Best In Show,’ with first place winning $1000, second place winning $500 and third place winning $250. In addition to the ‘Best in Show’ prize, one ‘Magnus Health Award’ with a value of $500 was awarded to the group that presented the best health hack, and three more ‘Community Foundation Awards’ were given to the top teams that demonstrated education and workforce development, downtown revitalization and viable city neighborhoods, and non-profit strategic alliances for York City Fiscal Strength. First place received $1000, second place received $500 and third place got $250.

Winners:

‘Best In Show’

1st Place - Bookspy

2nd Place - USB Rubber Ducky

3rd Place – York Bike Lock

Magnus Health Award

Avoiding Danger

Best device privacy hack

USB Rubber Ducky

Best use of Amazon web services

Turbine.EDU 

Domain.com

Hackharambe.com 

Community Foundation Awards

1st Place - Safety Net

2nd Place - York Hacks

3rd Place – Proving Auditions