Hack the North, the largest collegiate hackathon in Canada, celebrated its 10th anniversary at the University of Waterloo with more than 1,000 students from around the world.
The event was originally founded in 2013 by three Waterloo students including Kevin Lau (BASc ‘17, systems design engineering).
“We leveraged the University’s reputation and connections to convince top-tier sponsors, mentors and speakers to fly to Waterloo for this new kid on the block called Hack the North,” says Lau, founding product manager at Tome. “We had 1,000 student hackers attend that first event and the numbers haven’t waned since.”
The hackathon owes a lot of its success to being run like a company. There is a very selective hiring process and a strong culture of training and succession planning. Team leaders need to commit to at least two years with organization — the first year they learn the ropes, the second year they teach the next person.
Oana Binder, third year systems design engineering student at Waterloo and co-director of the Hack the North 2023 organizing team, got involved with the event in 2021 and has loved every second. Having worked on the inside, she’s not surprised by the event’s ongoing success.
Oana Binder, systems design engineering student at Waterloo and co-director of the Hack the North 2023 organizing team.
“Ten years is a long time for such an event but there’s still so much excitement and interest,” says Binder. “It’s testament to the organization’s strong focus on community. The team members change but the team’s passion and dedication doesn’t.”
The founding trio are an example of the many alumni still closely connected to the event. People often stay involved in advisory roles which helps preserve and improve on institutional knowledge, culture and best practices year after year.
This article is an excerpt from Celebrating 10 years of Hack the North.