Four Aggies, three of whom took first place at the Facebook Texas Regional Hackathon last month, will compete again at LA Hacks on April 11-13. This 36-hour long hackathon is being held at UCLA, where the team, Eleni Mijalis, Bob Timm, Walter Pospick and Rafael Moreno, will compete against 1,500 other “hackers” from across the country.
This event is much larger than the previous hackathon held in Austin, which was hosted by Facebook in its office, which had a cap of 120 people. LA Hacks is sponsored by 60 different companies and more than 1,200 people are expected to attend and compete.
“This event with how large it is brings in some of the best innovators in the industry,” said Timm, a sophomore computer science major. “Many of the LA Hack judges are pioneers and leaders in their industry. It is a great medium between engineering students and potential careers.”
In the early days of Facebook, when someone had an idea for the company, they would stay up all night and build a prototype. As Facebook grew, hackathons became organized events where people from around the country could do the same, while also being in a learning environment surrounded by peers. This atmosphere provides opportunities for computer engineers of all backgrounds to collaborate together and efficiently execute ideas as a team.
“I like going to these events for two reasons,” said Moreno. “Number one, being that the computer science curriculum does a great job of giving you the critical thinking skills and the foundation for being a great developer, but at these events, you are forced to go out of your comfort zone to build something on a platform that you have never used, such as Android, IOS, a web app, Windows Phone, etc.”
The impact of these hackathons continues to grow as more and more students and engineers compete. Mijalis, Timm, Pospick and Moreno will have 36 hours to show LA Hacks what Texas A&M is all about.