In the beginning, there was nothing… Then, there was a Dave… And in a sudden burst of light was born MHacks! (You see, he had to turn the lights on to see what he was writing down 😛)
Hello everyone! I’m Mr. X, and I had the privilege of talking with Dave Fontenot, father of MHacks. I asked him questions about the origin, the history, and the future of MHacks.
Dave got inspired by attending a few smaller hackathons, but aside from them there was no major student hackathons! That was all about to change. Fontenot and other students from the University were able to get 500 hackers together for the very first MHacks, all hacking together.
Check this sh*t out!
One of the best excerpts I heard from Dave was when I asked him about the future of hackathons, and how they’ve changed over time.
“The fundamentals are the same, right? The biggest thing that you’re doing here is you’re not doing everything else. You’re setting aside time where you’re explicitly not doing other things and focusing on one thing. So, I’ve seen people build all kinds of things at hackathons. I’ve seen people build art. The fundamental principal here is dropping everything else to obsess over one thing.”
I’ve always had a hard time explaining exactly what hackathons are to someone, but this does a great job. Dropping everything in your life for a weekend, and obsessing over that one project you’ve always wanted to make is the essence of a hackathon.
“You can spend four years teaching people about Computer Science, or you can just have them go to a hackathon and start building stuff.”
I asked what the most important part of making a hackathon successful was, especially for a first timer. He said that building a diverse organizing team with many different skills - not just hackers - is a great place to start.
“Planning a hackathon and being a hacker are such disjoint skill-sets.”
For the first MHacks, Dave recalled how every single member of the organizing team had to assist with fundraising. Sponsorship is obviously incredibly important.
Dave made it a point to mention that bringing hackers together is what’s most important for the future. He argues that holding smaller hackathons aren’t the way to go. The goal should be to have larger hackathons that bring more people together.
“I think for the most part, we just need to make these more accessible. Everyone’s trying to like innovate and stuff, and that’s cool, we should definitely do that… but none of that really matters, the big thing that really matters is impact… And right now a lot of young people really don’t have access to hackathons. This is the biggest problem in hackathons, people don’t have access to them. So if there’s any way I want to see hackathons innovate, I want to see more of them, and bigger. So they have more impact”
We like what Dave said, and we’re using his advice to create an even stronger community at MHacks X and beyond. Apply now at mhacks.org to be part of the greatest hacker community in the world.
Hack on, my friends ❤
- Mr. X
P.S. — We’ll be releasing audio clips from key points in the interview at a later date.
Want more MHacks goodness? Check out our last post: X Marks the Spot
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Compliments (we like these!)? Shoot us an email (hackathon@umich.edu), message us on Facebook, DM us on Twitter, or tag us on Instagram!
Cool projects from the first MHacks:
https://devpost.com/software/workflow
https://devpost.com/software/greencan
More from MHacks:
DaveHacksTheWorld
