Media advisory: 125 college students expected at UB hackathon this weekend

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Dozens of Western New York college students are expected to compete in a 24-hour hackathon this weekend at the University at Buffalo.

The event pairs budding developers, designers and entrepreneurs together to create new computer software in a fast-paced and creative setting.

“This is a chance for developers to get together, brainstorm ideas and show off the skills they’ve learned both in and outside the classroom,” said Nick DiRienzo, a UB sophomore majoring in computer science and engineering and organizer of the event.

At the hackathon’s conclusion on Sunday, teams will present their ideas to a panel of judges. They will be ranked based upon usefulness, technical difficulty, creativity and polish. More than $2,000 worth of prizes will be distributed.

Here’s some more information:

Who: Students from UB, St. Bonaventure University, the Rochester Institute of Technology and SUNY Buffalo State.

What: Contrary to the term’s connotations, the original meaning of “hacking” was coding and building programs for computer software. A hackathon is when entrepreneurs, designers and developers come together for a weekend to collaborate and build cool things.

When: The hackathon begins at noon Saturday, April 13, and continues into the next day. Note: The best visuals will occur starting at 2 p.m. Sunday when students demonstrate what they developed.

Where: Barbara and Jack Davis Hall, UB North Campus (building no. 37 on this map: http://www.buffalo.edu/buildings/maps/NorthCampus.pdf).

Website: www.ubhacking.com.

The hackathon was organized by UB’s chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery, which bills itself as the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society. Sponsors include Synacor, Bloomberg, Dow Jones, SendGrid, InfoTech Niagara, Engine Yard, GitHub, Ambur, and UB Computer Science and Engineering.