Traditionally associated with criminals and a lot of high-speed typing, hacking is now less nefarious and more about personal, professional, and educational growth. This new meaning came along with the introduction of wide scale, often international events where hundreds of university students got together and spent a day or a weekend making something- making anything, they want, usually. Some students group up and collaborate on apps or software, while others work on hardware hacks such as a candy-delivering robotic turret (Friendly the robot). While open-ended events like these are often found in the United States or Europe, Canada is finally seeing events of its own. The biggest of these, founded in 2014 by a group of students from the University of Waterloo, is called Hack the North[i]. Partnered up with the University of Waterloo, Techyon, Combinator, and Major League Hacking, Hack the North has become a force to be reckoned with.
Hack the North, occurring in late September, had around 1,000 students partaking this year. The event welcomed all university undergraduate students to apply (and accommodated some high school students as well) to their 36 hour event. Many of those hours were dedicated to hacking time or to workshops where participants could learn new skills to then use on their hack. Beyond the student participants, industry leaders and professionals arrived to help provide workshops, mentoring, and even contributions of judging the final hacks to reach the 10 unranked [ii] overall winners. Such leaders comprised of Alexis Ohanian, cofounder of Reddit; Mike Kirkup, Director at Velocity; and many more. With the help of dozens of sponsors including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, TD, Velocity, and more, Hack the North was able to feed all 1000+ participants over the course of the event, as well as assist in providing transportation for many.
Though hackathons (and Hack the North specifically) are chock-full of industry leaders and professionals available for small meetings and tokens of advice, hackathons never have the purpose of earning money, helping companies with selling a product, or launching a new business (not to say that doesn’t happen unintentionally after the fact, however). [iii]
While many hackathons have specific themes or goals that participants work within, such as the widget creation hackathon for UW’s student portal and hackathons designed to encourage broader participation in computing, Hack the North specifically has no target, theme, or limitations: it merely encourages participants to have something –anything- finished in time for judging. It offers the tools ( including hardware to work with) and skill workshops necessary for students to create anything they want. The key, though, is that participants must not have begun working on their hack before the start of the hackathon; this keeps judging as fair as possible at the end of the event. Coming in with ideas is OK, as is coming without ideas: workshops and talks are hosted to help kick-start inspiration.
Hack the North provides YouTube videos of the winners’ final pitches on stage, and brief summaries of all submissions from the event for anyone interested to take a look. Judging criteria from Hack the North specifically include originality, practicality, aesthetics, technicality, and “WOW” factor; some prizes were also offered for more specific hacks such as the best iOS app or the best Pebble hack. Browse through the submissions and be excited for Canadian-led innovation!
[i] Hack the North. (n.d.). Retrieved October 9, 2015.
[ii] Talwar, K., & Horne, L. (2015, March 13). What is a hackathon? Lecture presented at Professional development seminar in University of Waterloo, Waterloo.
[iii] Falls, T. (2014, January 22). WHY is a Hackathon, Not What is a Hackathon. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
[iv] [Hackathon logo]. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.neweurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/hackathon-e1458920518278.png
