Welcome to MHacks 9!

March 24th to 26th, University of Michigan North Campus

Who We Are

First of all, allow us to introduce ourselves. Our names are Arwin, Kevin, and Nevin, and we are the Directors for MHacks 9. We, along with our fantastic Core Team, are the University of Michigan students who are organizing MHacks’ winter event.

• Arwin is a long-time hacker, with involvement in on-campus hacker/designer communities such as MPowered. She has been a part of MHacks as a hacker since MHacks 6 and joined the Core Team to lead Design for MHacks 8. For MHacks 9, Arwin is Director of UX and is overseeing the UX and Design teams.
• Kevin has been a part of the Core Team for the past 2 events, making sure we’re bringing the best sponsors for our hackers. For MHacks 9, Kevin is Director of Sponsorship and is overseeing the Sponsorship team.
• Nevin is a Computer Science and Business double major. His first hackathon was MHacks 6 and he joined the Core Team to work on Frontend Web Development for the next two MHacks events. For MHacks 9, Nevin is Director of Logistics and is overseeing the Logistics and Tech teams.

Now that the ice has been broken, let’s talk MHacks 9. In this post, we’d like to introduce you to two big changes that we’re bringing to MHacks for this event.

Empathy-Driven Design

MHacks hackers are well-known for producing technologically complex and unique hacks. We want to help hackers take their projects to the next level. Empathy-Driven Design is all about building a product with the end-user in mind. The workforce is seeing a massive shift in increasing focus on the user. We’ve seen it with Amazon’s Amazon Go and Uber’s UX redesign. Companies are clamoring for developers who can design and designers who can develop; all-roundedness is a highly sought-after skill. We want hackers to think critically about who their innovative solution is for. In what context will this product be used? What do the users really need? These questions will help hackers create the best technological solution possible and help hackers better communicate with people from different disciplines.

Increased Focus on Local Hackers

It’s time for MHacks to give back to our Michigan community. For MHacks 9, we will be increasing outreach to all Michigan schools and aiming to further strengthen our relationship with the University of Michigan. As a result, hackers can expect bus routes from nearby schools (more information on these by the end of the week) and Travel Reimbursement preference to hackers who lie within a 250 mile radius from Ann Arbor. Detroit is being touted as the next design hub, so we believe a focus on local hackers will also help us convey our Empathy-Driven Design message. Be assured that our larger fall event, MHacks 10, will return to helping hackers from further away to attend the event.

Of course, as always, you can expect that MHacks will continue to encourage initiatives we have started in the past, such as healthy hacking and inclusivity. We hope you are excited about MHacks 9 and we’d love to hear your thoughts in the response section below! Be sure to apply at mhacks.org by March 10th!

- Arwin, Kevin, and Nevin

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!