Event Recap — Hack_NCState
Hack_NCState 2023, North Carolina State University’s annual hackathon, took place in person on April 8–9th, 2023. Hack_NC State is a 24-hour sprint that allows participants to code up innovative projects, attend various tech talks, listen in on guest speakers, and engage in their one-of-a-kind special events. This year’s event, however, was particularly special in that it was the first year high school students were allowed to compete, a competitive programming competition was added, and a midnight easter egg hunt was even included! Over 100 participants signed up, 61 participants attended, and a total of 14 projects were submitted. All participants were given a participation t-shirt and other swag items throughout the night and even had a chance to win $1,610 in cash prizes.
The hackathon focused on tackling challenging problems through the use of technology. Hack_NCState preferred to keep the theme relatively open-ended so that participants could have a variety of challenges and disciplines to choose from without feeling locked into a particular theme. Challenge tracks included:
Double Data
Data can be used to help find trends in the overall population that can be used to help benefit those among it. This track focuses on using data to solve any environmental problem that you can think of! The only requirement is that you pull information from at least two datasets of your choosing. Be sure to include sources for any data/information you researched.
Economy
Money is foundational to your everyday life. You need to buy food, gas, and clothes; some of us may have a paid summer internship lined up; or you might sell art as a side hustle — whatever it is, you have to be smart about how you approach saving, spending, and earning. Maybe you want to predict how spending on certain items will affect your credit score or you want to help people save their money! Your project should focus on making a program that addresses “growth” in terms of economics.
Create the Future
What lies ahead of you 10, 50, or even 1000 years from now? Will there finally be flying cars? Maybe you want to design a solar-powered hair dryer or color-changing clothes that react to your body temperature. The future is in your hands. Bring your creative ideas to life! This is a very broad track, so don’t be afraid to think outside the box.
Special guests included a few speakers from HackDW3C running a variety of workshops (Colin McDonnell “Journey in Web3”, Miriam Reza and Hunter Coleman “Intro to Crypto”, Scotty Shaw “Hedera”) as well as Earth Hacks’ Community Manager, Camille Minns, who presented the “What Could Go Wrong?” workshop.
The Hack_NCState team shared, “We are very proud of how this hackathon returned to being in-person after a long hiatus of being held virtually due to COVID. We faced a lot of challenges as a team in this pivotal year, essentially starting from scratch and having to figure things out along the way. We are beyond thrilled that we were able to host an in-person event despite the adversity and create an experience that the participants enjoyed and will remember for years to come. It was a pleasure to work with EarthHacks this year and we are happy with how this partnership turned out given the short timeframe. We wish EarthHacks the best in its future hackathons!”