Hackathon Hopes To Build Interest

While students spend the last days of spring break working on their tans or research papers, another group will be gathering together to work on building the next big thing in technology.

CSULB’s Association for Computing Machinery is hosting BeachHacks, the university’s first ever hackathon. The event will last for 24 hours, beginning on Saturday, April 2 at 4 p.m. in the University Student Union and is free to attend. Students of all skill levels are encouraged to participate in the hackathon.

“We will be offering workshops which allow beginners an opportunity to learn some basics about different aspects of programming and point them towards resources from which they can learn more on their own,” ACM president Michael Botsko said. He hopes to bring in mentors to the event to help out inexperienced attendees and point them in the right direction with their projects.

While it’s rare that projects and ideas developed out of hackathons are successful in the marketplace, attendees often pick up skills that can be applied to future projects, such as time management when working with a team, along with the opportunity to network with peers and employers.

Projects students engage in during these type of events are often applicable to everyday life. ACM member Leaf Cherngchaosil worked with a team at UC Berkeley’s hackathon, CalHacks, to build an app that would allow users to place a reservation at a nearby restaurant and then use an Uber driver to get to and from the restaurant. Aleks Kivuls, the organization’s vice president, wrote an application that allowed him to keep track of live bus schedules for the Pebble smart watch.

Bostko, a computer science major, was inspired to host a hackathon to CSULB after seeing and attending similar events at other universities. He and his team began planning and organizing BeachHacks last summer.

“We analyzed our experiences at previous hackathons so we could try to incorporate the best parts of a hackathon and avoid mistakes,” Botsko said. “Most colleges and universities are excited by these events, but are often concerned about the overnight aspects and overall scope of the event. However, I found having a solid plan and pitch for the event goes a long way when trying to host an event like this.”

He and his organizers hope to have 400 students attend BeachHacks, a number that he sees as workable for the university’s first hackathon. The event’s registration website has had a consistent number of people registering daily, Botsko said, but he sees it reaching full capacity before the day of the event and suggests applying before March 1 to have the best chance of attending.

 “I hope that BeachHacks participants walk away from the event excited from what they found they had the potential to build at our event and that they're even more excited for the potential of future events like this,” Botsko said.

For more information and to register for the event, visit beachhacks.com.

Written by Navy Keophan