Five Minutes at PennApps—Part One

One team, one mentor, one side event

It’s 9:30 PM, day one of PennApps. Food has been served, swag bags distributed, and hundreds of hackers have settled in for one long night.

Hackers

Up in a small classroom on the third floor of Towne, one hack’s in the planning stages. Arman, Adel, Prakhar, and David, a group of Penn sophomores and juniors, are thinking about building a Chrome extension.

Like many PennApps participants, this isn’t their first hackathon. “Last PennApps we did a movie recommendation app…it was a cool experience and we barely managed to finish at the last minute,” says Adel.

The group’s optimistic about their project. Chrome API is being researched, frameworks built, and plans designed at a steady pace.

Sponsors — Sift Science

Jacob Burnim is at this first hackathon. A lead technical developer at Sift Science, he’s flown all the way from San Francisco to represent his company at PennApps.

Sift applies machine learning to ecommerce fraud detection, designing and building intelligent systems that protect online businesses.

Lots of people have already approached him about machine learning. It’s a more difficult, complex topic says Jacob, and he’s impressed by the number of hackers that’ve expressed interest.

His PennApps experience so far: “An amazing run up to the opening ceremony, with lots of people interested in Sift and hackathons.”

Side event — Smash @ PennApps

Need a break from coding? Greenberg Lounge, across the courtyard from the food/energy drink distribution center that is Levine lobby, is filled with TVs, consoles, and passionate gamers.

Penn’s Nintendo gaming community has been collaborating with PennApps since spring 2013 to bring Super Smash Brothers to our hackathons.

The event is run by Jim and Vivek, two Penn undergrads.

Says Vivek: “I like playing with everyone and meeting people who are interested in Smash from other universities.”

New to the game? No worries. It’s easy to pick up, learn, and play.

Still haven’t satisfied your competitive drive? Penn Smash has teamed up with Moxtra to sponsor Project M and Melee tournaments on Saturday (tomorrow!). Winners receive an iPad Air, and runner-ups get a $50 Chipotle gift card, which isn’t too bad either. Sign up at smash.pennapps.com.

It’s 9:35 PM at PennApps day one, and the night’s just started.