The 5th HackNYU, a competition that brings together innovation, creativity, design, and time management, was hosted from 19th to 21st February 2016. In New York the event was held at two locations--the NYU Tandon School of Engineering in Brooklyn and the NYU LaGuardia Co-op in Manhattan. HackNYU also allowed online submissions from teams based in NYU Shanghai and NYU Abu Dhabi in order to bring together the entire Global Network. This was the biggest global hackathon hosted by NYU yet, a fact that didn't seemed to be emphasized in NY; over 35 projects were developed and submitted by over 400 participating students. Three winning projects for each track were announced at the event’s closing ceremony. Winners included Share Meal, an NYU student organization creating their own phone app, that allows freshmen and RA’s to share their leftover meal plan swipes with upperclassmen in need; 100NYU, an online interactive platform for a hundred things to do before graduation for NYU, in order to celebrate the university’s culture and campus life; Project Press, which allows users to provide location-based news and hence act like reports for their community; and Confluent, a new way to learn foreign languages whilst surfing the internet. Two projects developed by NYU Shanghai students were also winners in the Accessibility Track: “Buddy”, developed by juniors Samantha Shi and Sean Kelly, a wearable device to contact and message friends and family and to track their location; and “Stack”, a program that allows those with visual impairments to participate in design and prototyping, and hence help the NYU maker’s community. Stack was developed by students Baaria Chaudhary, David Santiano, and Dylan Crow, and was an online submission from NYU Shanghai. "It was really fulfilling to work on a project that has the possibility of transforming someone's life," said Crow. The event gave participants 48 hours to form teams and solve engineering problems on a track of their choice. This year’s event offered four tracks: The Accessibility and Assistive Technology track, aimed at creating a more inclusive and accessible community at NYU; the Dental Track, to implement technology in the dental care industry; the Education and Student Life track, focused on helping students and promoting education; and the Sustainability Track, to create a more socially responsible and environmentally sustainable community within and outside of NYU. Each track came with its own challenges and available resources to inspire its participants. For example, participants in the Accessibility and Assistive Technology track were given access to the Ability Lab’s client-facing project database, which gave NYU’s hackers access to online users who could be consulted and test projects. The judges for each track were also chosen based on the requirements of the track, such as clinicians and health professions for the Dental and Assistive Technology tracks. Projects were judged based on their creativity, innovation, and application to the NYU community. This year, students could begin to form teams and collaborate on projects well before the hackathon through HackNYU’s new Project Collaboration feature, which allowed students to post their ideas on a platform and gauge the interest of fellow participants. Several pre-hackathon workshops were also available to students to develop skills before the event, and an additional resource available to participants this year is the C3 (Campus Coding Collaborative) program, an innovation grant that will be given to chosen applicants to pursue the development of their project after HackNYU. A collaboration between the IT Department, the Department of Student Affairs, and Student Council, the grant offers $3000 along with mentorship, guidance, and design space at the LaGuardia co-op to the selected participants. While only three projects will be selected for the grant this year, specific projects can also be taken up and funded by specific NYU departments that are interested in their development. When asked for their opinion on the event, most participants gave positive feedback, commenting on the amount of resources available for participants to learn new skills and test their projects. A popular opinion seemed to be that HackNYU is perfect for students who are interested in innovation but believe they might not have the necessary skills, who simply need a push to let their creative juices flow or just need to be given the right resources. An event like this also focuses more on ideas rather than time, as many students claimed that they changed their project ideas last minute but still had successful results. This article was written by Lathika Chandra Mouli. Please send an email to [email protected]. Photo Credit: HackNYU