Heads down and eyes fixated on their screens, with fingers clacking against keyboards as students competed in the 24-hour Hackathon Saturday. It was a fast-paced event with teams coming together to code and build video games, websites, apps and more within a single day.
Senior computer science major Mary Margaret Stephenson has been the outreach director of the Appalhack for three years and is also president of the Women in Computer Science club.
“It’s really just a way for the department to come together,” Stephenson said.
Savannah Heafner, a sophomore computer science major, was in charge of creating the budget for the event. She said that she has learned a lot from helping to facilitate the event.
“It can be so hard for students who are in their second and third year to find the time to do personal projects,” Heafner said. “This is a solid 24 hours to get something for your resume.”
Planning for the Hackathon started last semester, with meetings every month and two within the month ahead of Appalhack. The computer science department helps to facilitate the event, but it is entirely student-run. Each student carries a different role in helping set up and organize the event. Professors of the computer science department also help to judge the four categories of the Hackathon.
Judge and computer science lecturer Courtney Dixon got involved in the Hackathon during their second semester as a student.
“This was my second time volunteering as a judge for Appalhack,” Dixon said. “I was looking forward to seeing the amazing ideas my former students came up with the most.”
Throughout the event, organizers stuck to a strict schedule of activities for students to participate in during the Hackathon. This included s’mores, bug hunts and smaller coding competitions.
Competitor and organizer Eric Hendershot is a junior computer science major, and this year, he helped create Appalhack’s website for the event. This is Hendershot’s first year at App State; he said Appalhack is a great opportunity to showcase his coding skills and be a part of a group event. His team focused on designing an app that would better showcase when the AppalCart buses arrive.
“We are building a widget on your phone that will show you the times of Appalcart buses that are going around,” Hendershot said. “We are going to add something onto the lock screen so that when you turn on your phone, you can see your bus stop.”
Hendershot’s team was awarded an honorable mention for Best Practical Applications.
The Women in Computer Science club also had their own team, where they were creating a choose your own adventure style game. Sophomore computer science major Emma Bowers had the idea based on a childhood game she had once played.
“We are creating a similar concept to a choose your own adventure game,” Bowers said. “It’s all text-based, you as the players are downloading an International Space Station communicator where you could talk to the astronauts on the International Space Station, but you end up intercepting messages from a lost ship.”
Senior computer science major Thomas Sang and his team won Best Practical Applications for their idea of FoundIT. The concept of FoundIT includes creating a listing with relevant details of the lost item and the return location. Students then would be able to check the website and go directly to the right location. Security and accountability were included in their process, with workers verifying it with physical ID and banner numbers.
“We believed the biggest strength of our idea was how practical and useful it could be in a real campus setting,” Sang wrote in an email. “Winning that category felt very rewarding because it showed that others recognized the value and real-world potential of what we built. My teammates and I were very excited and proud of what we accomplished together.”
Sang wrote that the Hackathon gave him more confidence in his technical and collaborative skills.
“It was a strong morale boost and also gave us a project we can point to when talking with employers, showing that we can take an idea, work as a team, and build something meaningful under pressure,” Sang wrote.
Sang noted that the event also helped him understand the importance of solving issues in real-time.
“It also reminded me that software development is not just about writing code, but also about communication, teamwork, and solving real problems for real people,” Sang wrote.
Luke Johnson, a sophomore computer science major, and his teammates won Best Video Game for their comedy horror game. The game, “Escape from J Cole’s House,” was an idea Johnson had for a while. The premise of the game is to break into J Cole’s House, leaking his unreleased mixtapes online.
“It felt great to work in a team and help secure the win for my teammates. I think competing in an event like this and winning for the first time is a super memorable experience, and I am glad I was able to contribute and share that win with my teammates!” Johnson wrote in an email.
Johnson has had experience with making games, and thought this would be a great way to work in a team and meet other computer science majors. His team stayed overnight at Anne Belk, sleeping on couches in hallways and racing around on rolly chairs.
“Everyone was taking it seriously, but it was also super fun. It felt like a big sleepover,” Johnson wrote.