RhodesHacks 0: How and Why I Started a Hackathon at my Liberal Arts College
Background: The Why
The idea to bring a hackathon to Rhodes College began in the summer of 2015 as I thought about ways I could impact the school from my position as Rhodes Entrepreneurship Club (E.club) President. Rhodes is a top notch liberal arts school with really talented students across academic disciplines. I knew if I could plan a hackathon, students would be interested and participate at a high level.
While Rhodes is a small college without an engineering program or much of a graduate school presence, it has a rapidly growing computer science department and lots of students interested in the tech industry. Tech has not typically been a destination for many Rhodes grads but I think that’s changing (this is also national trend, as tech industry expands and others shrink). Additionally, Rhodes students are skillful problem solvers using their studies in various subjects to craft innovative solutions. Enter RhodesHacks.
The Event
I was thoroughly impressed with all the teams’ final products which included 3D streaming from desktop to mobile, a mobile music mixing app, a mobile meet up and streaming app for bands best described as SoundCloud mixed with Tinder, a reflective prism that displays 3D objects from websites into the physical space and a comprehensive life management mobile app. Rhodes students worked through the night to produce high quality projects in the spirit of competition, innovation and hacking. This was exciting to see.
The event opened up on Friday night with announcements and introduction of the judges. During the event, we served 3 meals and made snacks and drinks available for the duration. Much caffeine was consumed and sleep was mostly afterthought. With this being the first RhodesHacks, not everything ran perfectly but what was most important to me did go according to plan. What was most critical in my opinion was for Rhodes students to produce projects that would be competitive at the nation’s top hackathons like MHacks. I knew a lot of the students who participated beforehand and knew what level of hacking they were capable of. They certainly came through. I was also encouraged by the participation of students with no prior exposure to hackathons. We purposefully made the theme of RhodesHacks tech, design and service* to add a liberal arts twist to the historically more engineering driven hackathon. In the words of Steve Jobs, “I think our major contribution [to computing] was in bringing a liberal arts point of view to the use of computers.”
RhodesHacks 0 would not have been possible without our steadfast advisory board. The event certainly owes a lot to the Associate Vice President of Rhodes College, Bud Richey. He’s dutifully earned the title of RhodesHacks co-founder. To future hackathon planners, having a faculty advisor and an advisory board of alumni and friends of the school to help guide the planning of your school’s hackathon is highly recommended. Another tip: you can never have too much food.
Without a doubt, RhodesHacks can and will serve as a platform for students to display their talents and receive job offers from top tech firms. This already happens at hackathons across the country and there’s no reason this won’t happen at Rhodes.
RhodesHacks 0 Top Projects
The inaugural RhodesHacks ended with the judges (members of the advisory board) awarding the top projects in best overall, best in tech, best in design and best in service. Here’s a brief preview of those projects:
Best Overall: One Night Band - iOS app that allows musicians to find other musicians to play with. Its like a combination of Tinder and SoundCloud. The UI is fire. Team: Thomas Threlkeld, Will Cobb & Luke Dulske.
Best in Tech: a reflective prism that displays 3D objects from websites into the physical space using a Unity program to display the images. The images are extracted from websites using Python’s Selenium package and WebDriver. Team: Jake Owens, Alex Abdo, Dan Lanza & Semaye Mengistu.
Best in Design: Cleft — Android app that allows users to be their own personal DJs. Cleft enables you to mix/match tracks on your phone. Team: Preston Tunnell Wilson & Donny Ramier.
Best in Service: BetterMe — an iOS life management and productivity app enabling users to manage their schedule, sleep, studying, exercise and more. Took home best in service for the makers’ plans to center community outreach & empowerment around the app. Team: Seabelo John & Nick Parinella.
What’s Next for RhodesHacks
The vision for RhodesHacks is a premier hackathon in the Southern United States. I think we’ve laid the ground work and are well on our way. Next year, we hope to have students from other schools participating in RhodesHacks. In two years, we hope the event is nationally known and attended by students from across the country. We plan to always keep RhodesHacks free for participants which means relying on generous sponsors to help us reach our goals.
Hackathons can benefit from the liberal arts and RhodesHacks 0 is a shining example. After all, again echoing Mr. Jobs, “computer science is a liberal art, it’s something everyone should know how to use, at least, and harness in their life.”
RhodesHacks 0 Highlight Video
*Rhodes is nationally recognized for its community service and tops Newsweek’s list of colleges with the most service-minded students.
Originally published at www.linkedin.com.
