Events
Get ready for UCSC’s first student-run hackathon!
By Katelyn Suhr and Moriah Wolfe
UCSC students and members of HACK UCSC organizing team
Special to Santa Cruz Tech Beat
January 11, 2017 — Santa Cruz, CA
(Photo above: The student organizers of Hack UCSC 2017 are (left to right) Zimraan Hamid, Sarah Borland, Anjali Kanthilal, Cora Monokandilos, Katelyn Suhr. Not pictured: Sukh Singh and Moriah Wolfe. Contributed)
Hack UCSC is proud to announce its fourth annual hackathon, taking place on January 20 to 22, 2017. It will be held at the Porter Dining Hall, with other classrooms available throughout the event. With the help of Major League Hacking and a plethora of exciting sponsors from the local Santa Cruz community, Hack UCSC has already over 1300+ applicants and 700+ admittees.
Get ready, hackers, because this will be UC Santa Cruz’s first free hackathon!
For those who have never been to a hackathon before, know that it’s a coding marathon fueled by pizza and Red Bull (one of our sponsors)! Friday will consist of registering, eating, listening to the opening speakers, and meeting fellow Hack UCSC attendees. At midnight, hacking begins and will continue until code freeze at midnight Saturday (with meals throughout the weekend, of course!). On Sunday there will be two rounds of judging, followed by the closing speakers and announcement of the winners! This is a great opportunity to meet people interested in the same kinds of software development as you, as well as those with an entirely different set of interests, form teams, and create your very own projects!
This year, Hack UCSC will include workshops for student participants on Saturday, led by mentors. This is a perfect opportunity for attendees not only to participate in the hackathon, but also benefit from learning in areas they are unfamiliar with. We encourage everyone, even those without a background in technology, to participate in the hackathon, in the hope of exposing more students to the Santa Cruz region’s tech ecosystem.
This year, we’re excited to announce that our opening guest speakers are Tomer Kagan and Ken Thompson. Tomer Kagan is the founder of Quixey search service, Sigma credential verification service, and a UCSC alum! Ken Thompson, a Turing recipient for the implementation of the UNIX operating system, is the creator of the B programming language, precursor to the C programming language.
Our closing guest speakers are Bud Colligan and George Blumenthal. Bud Colligan is the co-chairman of the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership, a nonprofit community-development organization. He is also the founder of South Swell Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on farm-tech companies and building sustainable technology and marine sciences. George Blumenthal is UCSC’s 10th chancellor; however, he has been a part of UCSC since 1972. He is a board member of Joint Venture Silicon Valley and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, showing his dedication to technology and entrepreneurship.
Student participants will compete in a variety of categories, including the two major ones of Innovation and Tech Cares. Our sponsors are providing many more categories. Check out our website!
This is the first year Hack UCSC is student run. Our organizing team consists of Zimraan Hamid (Director), Anjali Kanthilal (Director), Sarah Borland (Logistics & Sponsorship Lead), Sukh Singh (Logistics & Sponsorship Lead), Cora Monokandilos (PR & Webmaster), Moriah Wolfe (Graphic Designer), and Katelyn Suhr (PR & Sponsorship Lead).
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Tagged Hack UCSC, UC Santa Cruz
