Why sponsoring student hackathons is a great way to invest in the future of technology
L33tdawg: On a somewhat related note, registrations for #HackWEEKDAY: Turbo Edition (which will be held on the 24th and 25th of May alongside #HITB2012AMS) is still open for submissions!
I spent a fair chunk of my day today at a hackathon, and not one that I participated in. I was a mere judge, and along with a few other Chicago-based technologists judged a staggering 14 projects built by students from in and around Chicago.
The event, hosted at Booth Business School (part of the University of Chicago), was attended by students from other schools such as Northwestern, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. I’ve taken classes at Booth, so it was good to be in my old stomping grounds.
I had no idea what to expect. I’ve taken part in a Startup Weekend, been to many demo days, spent time hanging in incubators, and know more developers than I can name, but when a pool of talent was constrained to students, what would the result be? I wasn’t sure. However, and this was to my surprise, the quality of ideas, and nearly so in the case of execution, was just as high as you might expect from a hackathon of developers in their 20s and 30s (or even older). I was quite impressed.
