Last Wednesday, the Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE) Hackers committee hosted this year’s first HackNight, giving students a chance to participate in team-building activities and brainstorming application ideas for last week’s upcoming hackathons. Last week’s hackathons included UPE’s very own Global Game Jam, University of Florida’s SwampHacks, and Harvard University’s MakeHarvard. At the beginning of the night, participants were first introduced to the Hackers program, alongside with their mission to introduce and get students engaged with future hackathons. Afterward, attendees transitioned to an activity where they were split up into groups, and each was given a concept of vehicles to suggest improvements. This activity encouraged students to think of practical and unique improvements of pre-existing technologies, enabling students to utilize the same creative thought process that goes into developing an idea to work on for a hackathon. At the end of the night, each team presented their plans for redesigning their designated vehicle to all attendants. The night concluded with a vote on the most impressive idea and a special thank you to everyone who showed up. Did you miss out on last week’s HackNight? There is no need to worry as you can stay up to date with the Hackers committee’s and plans here: https://upe.cs.fiu.edu/. You can also join the UPE Discord for more information: https://discord.gg/upefiu
Written by: John Quitto-Graham