Inaugural 24-Hour Hackathon Event Challenges University Students in Mississippi
On April 6 and 7, 2024, the University of Mississippi held its inaugural hackathon event, Hack Beta, where students had the exciting chance to put their computer programming and problem-solving skills to the test. The event was a grueling yet thrilling 24-hour competition that drew students from various majors. Their task was to work in teams and find innovative solutions to real-world challenges posed by industrial partners. The reward on offer for the best solutions turned out to be cash prizes.
Creating Real-World Solutions
Larson Carter, a sophomore computer science major and chair of the student organizing committee, explained the purpose of the hackathon. “A hackathon is typically a 24-hour event where participants work to innovate a product or solution that can be implemented in the real world,” said Larson. “The partners provide challenges that they use in their everyday work environments, and the students have 24 hours to code an outside-the-box solution utilizing technology and programming.”
The event was built on the success of previous exposure to hackathons. University faculty had seen such events yield tremendous results and progress for the students involved. Thus, the computer and information science department decided to organize a local event to showcase the talents of their burgeoning computer science population.
Industry Partners Participation
The inaugural hackathon event was backed by industrial giants, including Ergon, FedEx, CoreLogic, and CSpire, who helped not only with planning and volunteering but also in providing real-world scenarios for the event. Other partners included GitHub, Major League Hacking, and UM’s Institute for Data Science, all contributing to the creation of a relevant and challenging environment for the participating students.
Challenges and Outcomes
The four challenges thrown to the students included creating a mobile app to monitor campus network performance, developing a file-sharing project for Bluetooth or internet, building a secure data communication app using provided hardware, and finding innovative ways to manipulate a dataset. The tasks were designed to be as practical and applicable as possible, mirroring real-world scenarios where such skills are essential.
At the end of 24 intensive hours, each team showcased their final projects before a panel of judges in an exciting and tense award ceremony. Team Syntax Error bagged the first-place overall award for developing a novel file-sharing method. Their work focused on distributing files locally without relying on Bluetooth, making it simpler and more accessible for everyday users.
Planning for the Future
The event was applauded by students and faculty alike and was deemed a huge success, which has already set plans in motion for a larger event in the fall. “For this spring event, we wanted to keep it limited to just Ole Miss students, but the fall hackathon will be open to participants from around the world,” said Yixin Chen, the head of the department. He further went on to share their ambitions to scale the event to accommodate 400 to 450 participants, truly globalizing the exposure and competition.
