Student-Run Hackathon draws over 550 participants, generates 127 projects

February 1st came, and the busses began arriving at U-M’s Palmer Commons. Over the course of the weekend, more than 550 students from across the country participated in the first-ever MHacks Hackathon, creating a total of 127 projects, the most ever at a student-run event of this kind.

MHacks – organized and run by student groups Michigan Hackers and MPowered Entrepreneurship – encouraged students to form into teams, conceptualize a hack, and then build it within 36 hours. You can get a sense of the event from these video clips of project demos that were livestreamed during the event.

A team of judges from industry, including lead sponsor Facebook, joined judges from the University in narrowing the field of contestants and choosing final winners (video). Top prizes were as follows and included 5 teams from Michigan:

1. SpeakEasy (UIUC)
2. Chaos Pad (Michigan: Billy Irwin, Joseph Constan, Christopher O-Neil)
3. Snow_Code (UIUC)
4. PayUpBitch.es (Michigan: Prateek Sachdeva, Nicholas Ruff)
5. Nowcation (Michigan: Jesse Daugherty, Raj Vir, Jamie Sookprasong)
6. Gather Magic (Purdue)
7. WPass (Michigan: Matthew Schulte, Mark Schulte)
8. Moments (Purdue)
9. Mustard (Michigan: Matthew Kneiser, Otto Sipe)
10. Moon.Chase.Start (Cranbrook HS)

CSE sponsored the prize for the “Most Technically Impressive” hack; that prize went to the Snow_Code team.

Read and See More:

Forbes: MHacks At The University Of Michigan Was The Largest Student-Run Hackathon

AnnArbor.com: Students at Michigan hackathon develop wide range of websites and apps

Deadline Detroit: U-M Weekend Hackathon Was ‘Amazing’ And ‘Epic’ And Involved 500 Students

College of Engineering: MHacks: Nation’s Largest Student hackathon

Seelio gallery: Many projects included from MHacks

Facebook: MHacks Facebook page