STUDENT NEWS
KU Engineering ‘Hackathon’ Earns National Ranking by Joel Mathis “First and foremost, it’s important for students at the university because it gives students the opportunity to learn outside the classroom setting,” Luo said. “It’s a great way for students to network with companies and faculty. It’s also mutually beneficial for the university, because it gives us exposure to talented students in the area as well as companies that are interested in hiring KU students.” HackKU’s hackathon in 2019 allowed time for technical workshops. Prizes for event winners included an Oculus Go virtual reality headset and a GoPro Drone. “We had a really strong showing from KU and a bunch of other universities. We had about 230 participants from KU and universities throughout the Midwest. That number was a lot higher than we were anticipating,” Luo said. “That really helped our ranking.” He added that the event was a learning experience for the student organizers. “In terms of planning, I’d say leadership is the number one thing everyone on the board took from planning the event,” he said. “Not only did the participants get a lot out of the hackathon, but so did the people who planned it.” HackKU hosted another successful hackathon in February 2020.
©2020 University of Kansas/Meg Kumin
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U put on one of the nation’s top “hackathons” during the 2018-19 school year, a national organization has announced. Major League Hacking, which provides resources to hackathons and ranks them, placed KU 25th among all North American schools for the hackathon it staged in 2019. The university’s ranking was aided by a stellar attendance score, which incorporates the attendance at KU’s hackathon as well as the number of KU students who attend other MLH-recognized hackathons. KU’s attendance score ranked 13th among the North American schools. “I think they were happy with our performance,” said Harrison Luo, a recent graduate in computer science who served as the 2018-2019 Chair of HackKU, which sponsored the 2019 event. “This is our first real breakout year.” Hackathons have been described as “invention marathons.” Teams of students — high school, undergraduate or graduate — gather in one spot for several days to apply their coding and other technical skills to create ideas for apps, websites, robots and more. Major League Hacking is the umbrella organization for the events and oversees more than 200 hackathons a year. The event also allows students to collaborate with area tech companies that sponsor the event and help provide prizes for the hackathon winners.
Students problem-solve during a session in LEEP2 at the 2020 KU hackathon. The university recently received a top 25 ranking for the quality of its hackathon in 2019.
KANSAS ENGINEER | 19
