Behind nwHacks 2020
Another year of nwHacks calls for another recap of the highlights of your favourite hackathon in Western Canada ✨
On January 11–12th, 2020, hackers from around the world came to the University of British Columbia for the 6th iteration of nwHacks, Western Canada’s Largest 24-hour Hackathon. We keep saying it year after year, but we are excited to have our largest turnout to date again!
The numbers behind nwHacks 2020
People 💖
- 766 hackers
- 126 mentors, judges, and recruiters
- 32 sponsors and in-kind community supporters
- 70 volunteers
- 40 organizers
Facts ✨
- $40,257+ in prizes
- 24,000+ Slack messages sent
- 1500 Timbits 🍩
- 1080 cans of Guayaki Yerba Mate
- 145 submitted projects
- 39 Slack contests
- 1 fantastic nwHacks 2020
I can’t tell you exactly how much love and energy our organizers have put into the event over the years, but I think a lot is said by the growth we see with every iteration, both in terms of [inclusivity/accesibility/sustainability] initiatives and community support. It was so unbelievable to see the community that this event has built over the last few years, and I’m honoured to have been a part of it. — Joice Tang, nwHacks Logistics Director
More about you, the hackers:
- 25% First time hackers 👶
- 45 different majors including 71% in computer science and engineering, 22% in other sciences/engineering, and 7% in majors such as economics, architecture, and biology! 🔬
- 66% UBC, 16% SFU, 3% BCIT 🎓
+ over 25 other schools including: Cornell University, Brown University, UC Berkeley, Rutgers University, University Of Texas, York University, Queen’s University, University Of Toronto, University Of Waterloo - 10% came from 27 cities outside the Lower Mainland ✈️
Notable locations: India; Ithaca, NY; Dallas, TX; Chicago, IL; Jacksonville, FL; Lincoln, NE; College Park, MD; Portland, OR; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; Toronto, Waterloo, Calgary
What’s new this nwHacks 2020?
Introducing: Hacker Spotlight 💡
With a large hackathon with over 700 hackers in the same venue, it is very easy to feel small and to view the event in terms of numbers rather than the individuals that make up the event.
This nwHacks, we kicked off our new nwPlus initiative: Hacker Spotlight! nwPlus members John Song and Anita Tse invited hackers, organizers, and volunteers alike to sit down with them and share their stories about anything from their hackathon projects to their hacker journey that led them here today. These stories would become part of a live feed in the #hacker-spotlight Slack channel where other hackers are welcome to read and follow along.
Meet our campus ambassadors! 🤩
In the beginning of the year, we introduced our Campus Ambassador Program to expand our reach to schools outside of UBC and the Lower Mainland. We were excited to welcome 3 of our Campus Ambassadors, Alice Hu from Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), and Dipak Parmar from Thompson Rivers University (Kamloops, BC), and Melody Oh from BCIT (Burnaby, BC) to hack with us at nwHacks!
We started a lot of new initiatives this year to try to enhance the hacker experience — some worked, and some didn’t, but I’m glad we tried. At the end of the day, our main goal at nwPlus is for everyone to feel like they have a place in tech, and that they can always learn something new with us. I hope you were able to get that at nwHacks. — Joice Tang, nwHacks Logistics Director
At nwHacks 2020,
Saturday, January 11th, 2020
10:00am Check-in 🌞
11:45am The Opening Ceremony welcomed our hackers and kicked off the event with a Q&A from Keith Horwood, the founder of Standard Library (who is from Canada!), followed by talks from MLH, Hootsuite, Microsoft, SAP, and Google Cloud. 🎤
1:00pm Lunch: Tacos from Chancho Tortilleria 🌮. meanwhile, Team Formation + Hacking Begins! 🔨
2:30–6:45pm We were delighted to have 6 workshops brought to you by our sponsors: ⚡️
- Rock Paper Scissors (Lizard Spock): AI Edition with Microsoft
- Three Powerful Google Cloud Products for Your Project with Google Cloud
- How to Build a Business Case using Journey Mapping with Accenture
- The Meme Economy with RBC
- APIs, Automation, and Workflows with Standard Library
- PiNeatre! Pitching, Networking, and Theatre Combined with KPMG
7:00pm Dinner: Chinese food from Kent’s Kitchen 🥡
8:00pm We were excited to run 2 more workshops, but this time hosted by our very own nwPlus members 😍
- Intro to Design by Allison Chiang
- Imposter Syndrome by Anne Guo (Reprised from UBC LHD: Learn Day)
11:00pm-4:00am Some of the most memorable moments of a hackathon come from the mini events rather than the hacking itself, and of course nwPlus is here to serve: 🎉
- Slack contests (EVERY HOUR of the event 😱)
- Mascot design contest (All event long)
- Blanket fort giveaway contest
- Women* in Tech Kahoot hosted by the cmd-f team
- Cup Stacking hosted by MLH
- Midnight Timbits powered by SAP
- 3AM noodles + Jam sesh powered by Microsoft + Standard Library
- Smash Tournament powered by Standard Library
4:00am Sleep… or not? 😅
Good morning, Sunday, January 12th, 2020 ☀️
8:00am Breakfast time 🥯
12:30pm Lunch: Bahn mis from Ba Le 🥖
1:00pm Projects are due! 145 projects were showcased to expo judges walking around the venue.
Now what’s a better way to destress after 24 hours of hacking than a visit from our honourary nwWoofs, Teddy & Cotton 🐶
2:00pm Demo time saw 145 projects being showcased simultaneously in the West atrium. It’s always amazing to see what everyone came up in 24 hours 💃🏻🕺
Check out all of the project submissions on Devpost!
4:15pm We’re at the end! Our closing ceremonies recognized 14 different projects: 🏆
- 1st Place — greenEats
- 2nd Place — Rebuild
- 3rd Place — COyou
- Popular Vote — Stats on Sight
- Standard Library: “Best Use of Standard Library”— Queue Up!
- SAP: “Analytics Champion” — SalesView
- Hootsuite “#SocialForGood award” — AnonyBuddy
- TD: “Best “Green” Development”— EcoVillage
- Sauder: “Sauder School of Business Award” — Recycle.Space
- Google Cloud: “Best Use of Google Cloud “— Copilot
- Google Cloud & MLH: 1st/2nd/3rd Places—Copilot, first hello, Emma
- Best Domain Registered with Domain.com — Hypeman
- Best use of MongoDB Atlas — rapidserve
I remember walking into my very first 24-hour hackathon, nwHacks 2017 as a tech newbie who didn’t know how they ended up in computer science. That weekend, I had so much fun learning new skills and meeting amazing individuals that it finally clicked that I could belong in tech after all. Fast forward to today, I am blessed to work on the team dedicated to making nwHacks as inclusive and amazing as it can be, and to provide hackers that life-changing weekend like the one I experienced in 2017. — Anita Tse, nwPlus Co-President
Thanks everyone for their continued support for 6 years and counting 💗
As always, nwHacks would not be able to continue running and growing each year without the help of every single person involved to make this event possible:
- Our amazing sponsors for continuing to support our events year after year.
- Our mentors + expo judges for taking time out of their weekend to help our hackers.
- Our volunteers for working so hard to make sure the event runs smoothly.
- Alvin, Enis, and Kelvin from AMS Spotlight, as well as our volunteers James and Kevin for capturing moments from the day.
- Godfrey Cheng for making our fantastic recap video. Check it out here!
- Our panel judges Calvin Cheng, Jacqueline Ashby, Ryan Matsumoto, and Rafael Jacinto for helping judge our top projects.
- The nwPlus Team for working so hard to pull this off in 9 months.
- Everyone else in between, for doing your thing ✨
See you at nwHacks 2021! 👋
nwHacks 2020 by nwPlus UBC, Words by Anita Tse.
Stay in touch: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
