On Sunday, Apr. 12, in the basement of the NYU Shanghai Academic Building a collection of bright young minds united together, got creative and hacked the night away for NYU’s Global Network Hackathon. Hackathon is a 24-hour event where students form small groups and unite their different skills to come up with an idea, create a design, and finally bring the idea to life. Freshmen Sunyi Wang and Kate Thoma-Hilliard were part of the four-person team that won third prize for their creation—an LED light system that allows students to anonymously inform teachers and lecturers they are confused without interrupting the class. The light was even designed to change colors based on the number of students who pressed their button. According to Kate, the idea started off quite simply: “One person had an idea to use the LED light from the IMA Lab, so we went off of that.” In terms of how she felt about working with a team and creating a product, Sunyi said, “I got all these feelings and understandings when I was working with Jennifer, Amin, and Kate. [It] was really a life-long wonderful memory… It didn’t matter whether or not we succeeded in making a product. What mattered was that we have our unique ideas and use everything we know to try to make something. This was the best part.” Both of these students hope to participate in future Hackathons in any way they can, whether that be as a member of a team, as an event coordinator or in some other capacity. Fellow participant and member of the first place team Omer Cohen expressed a similar sentiment. While being interested in Hackathon before he thought he was too busy with schoolwork to participate. But this time he decided to wing it and is glad he did. “It was heaps of fun and very exciting to see the project go from messy notes on paper to a functioning program.” His team essentially created a platform that allows you to discuss the text with other people as you are reading it. Just imagine how helpful this would have been with GPS. Since this team was awarded first place for their program two things happened: 1) they received a cool drone as their prize and 2) their creation will go on to compete as a finalist in the global NYU competition against first place designs from NYU New York and NYU Abu Dhabi. The winner is apparently voter based so support the NYU Shanghai team by voting for them and letting everyone know NYU Shanghai means business. You can get a better idea of what they created by checking out this video made by Study Away student Justin Scholar: (note the video can only be watched from a computer). Also for those a bit hesitant to participate in future Hackathons because “hacking” is a word that scares you away keep in mind something that Kate said, “You really don't need any solid coding experience you just need ideas.” This article was written by Maya Williams. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch.