By Zachary Nelson
On May 25, 2018, more than 100 students participated in a 13-hour hackathon at the 糖心vlog视频. The event was hosted by the UW Bothell student chapter of the (ACM).
The term 鈥渉ackathon鈥� is a misnomer since students didn鈥檛 actually break into any networks. Hackathons are creative events where people come together and build new things. For the ACM hackathon, participants programmed in teams to create new bots.
Bots are applications that interact with humans to perform an automated task, such as setting an alarm, announcing the weather or playing a song. Popular bots are Amazon鈥檚 Alexa, Apple鈥檚 Siri and Microsoft鈥檚 Cortana. But bots don鈥檛 always talk. Many pizza companies, for example, have bots people can use to text their orders.
Recognizing that most students had no experience creating bots, the ACM club set out to make the event as accessible as possible. 鈥淭he event was for everyone, not just computer science majors. We had mentors and workshops to teach people the basics, so that everyone could compete,鈥� said Thomas Kercheval, a club vice president majoring in Computer Science and Software Engineering (CSSE).
With advances in technology, it has become relatively easy for people to build their own bot with minimal training. The club鈥檚 plan was simple: put students together in teams and see what kinds of bots they would invent. At the end of the day, the teams presented their completed bots. One team unveiled a social media integration bot that allows users to simultaneously message on Facebook, Twitter and Discord. Students also created a Tamagotchi bot that emulates a cute pet to care for.
鈥淲e wanted to foster an innovative atmosphere so that students could create amazing projects they are passionate about,鈥� said Hanan Ibrahim, the club鈥檚 president and a CSSE junior. The club fueled the developers with snacks and upbeat tunes while they worked.
鈥淥ne of our goals is to create a sense of community at UW Bothell through this club. We want to bring people together so they can make friends,鈥� said Michael Vaschillo, who is also majoring in CSSE. 鈥淭his sense of community is partly why we decided to open this event and partner with other clubs.鈥濃��
Workshops that focused on developing tech and coding basics were led by three other student clubs: Cryptocurrency & Blockchain, the Internet of Things and the Gray Hats. 鈥淲e wanted this to be an educational and productive event. The workshops allowed the participants to take a break from building and learn about something new,鈥� said Ibrahim.
ACM hopes that this hackathon will be just the first in a succession of annual hackathons. Follow ACM on and
