What is a "Hackathon"?

 

A hackathon is a community event where teams of people (usually 3 - 6) work on a specific project or idea for a limited length of time, typically 24 - 48 hours, with teams competing to produce the best solution to the mission statement. This may be a specific problem, or it may be a more general theme. Hackathons can be remote, in-person, or a hybrid of the two.

 

 

Definition

 

"A hackathon is an event where people engage in rapid and collaborative engineering over a relatively short period of time such as 24 or 48 hours." - Wikipedia. However at Ansys and in a software setting hackathons (or simply "hacks") tend to be about writing code. "Game Jams" are a conceptually simpler example. In a game jam you form a team (or tackle it on your own) and you have 24-48 hours to make a complete game, based on a theme (e.g. Platformer).
 
Software hacks are very similar, except it's a complete working application that you need to produce and not a game. Although, you do only get 48 hours at most, so even with a team of 6 people, you will have to cut a lot of corners to get there. None of the judges are expecting fully tested, reviewed, and QA'd code! 

 

Aside: Scrapheap Challenge/"Junkyard Wars" - James Derrick

If you grew up in the 90s in the UK (like me) then you'll probably remember this show. It was a formative part of my childhood and probably a big part of why I went into engineering in the first place (this and Robot Wars/"Battle Bots"). It is also an excellent example of a (literal) engineering hackathon! Two teams compete to build some sort of machine out of scrap/"junk" from a scrapheap (or "Junkyard") against a time limit. Additionally, just like a real hackathon, the prize is prestige and a trophy.

Scrapheap Challenge

I loved this show, and the attitude used by the contestants is directly transferrable to today's software hacks: be pragmatic and don't worry about it too much! You have so little time, and the tools you're working with are often just what comes to hand rather than ideal for what you need. Something that "works" is the goal and if it doesn't work completely it just needs to work "enough". Take risks, gamble, try out big things, and if something fails, don't dwell on it. Move on and get it done.

This attitude is directly applicable to software hackathons, and a great model for how to approach them.

I would not be surprised if Ansys employs any ex-contestants and if we do, please could I get your autograph???

 

Examples

Hack Zurich

 
"Founded in 2014, HackZurich rapidly became Europe's largest and most prestigious Hackathon. Every year, 600 international participants are invited to Zurich. Since 2020, they are joined by as many participating remotely from around the world in a first of its kind hybrid setup.

Participants are selected from a global pool of over 5500 applications, representing several elite universities from more than 85 countries. Together these tech talents develop highly innovative web-, mobile- and hardware applications during a 40-hour hackathon in teams of 2 to 5 people.

International companies and organizations of different industries provide participants with hardware, brand new technologies, tools, datasets, and APIs to spark the creation of new prototypes."

Hack Zurich

About HackZurich

Hack to the Future

 
"A fintech movement igniting a world of financial sustainability, inclusion, and empowerment

Building on the success of our previous hackathons – to redefine finance for good and build an unbiased fintech future, we are creating a movement. We are using our position in the market to inspire the fintech space to be open by default for everyone – and we aim to drive engagement beyond our global fintech ecosystem as we strive for financial sustainability, inclusion and empowerment."

Finastra is a financial software company with headquaters in London, England. 

Hack to the Future

About Hack to the Future

Hacker Earth

 
Hacker Earth is an Indian software company based in San Francisco that doesn't run just one hackathon, but many. In fact they are hackathon-organizers, who assist many organisations in setting up their own hackathons

 As such, they have many resources available concerning hacks, including their own guide that you can check out here:

Hacker Earth

Hacker Earth Hackathons

Hackathon for Good

 
"Hackathon for Good is an open invitation to anyone with a hacker mindset and the passion to work on data and AI for impact. We are curious about the possibilities of new technologies. We want to apply them for good. To solve things that truly matter. All across the world."

Hackathon for Good

About Hackathon for Good

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