This post was written by Lawreen Latif, a senior in Computer Science and the current director of UB Hacking.

UB Hacking is our annual student-run hackathon hosted at the University at Buffalo. From a pool of 1000+ applicants from across US & Canada, from over 20 universities, we select ~500 students to participate in a 24-hour hackathon where they get to showcase their creativity, teamwork and problem-solving skills through their software and hardware projects.

We work hard to provide a fun-filled, beginner-friendly learning environment and a multitude of resources for students to grow their technical skills by applying them to a project of their choice. Furthermore, working in a team-based environment gives them the opportunity to learn essential skills for the industry.

Our top two submissions last year were “TreatStrabismus” where 2 students created a VR game to treat Strabismus and “#cute_coffee_boi” where 3 students upgraded an ordinary coffee maker adding twitter functionality, web based activation and deactivation etc. My personal favorite was the “Mario Sketchbook” where users could create their own hand-drawn world for Mario to play in. (Check these and more project at Devpost!)  

Although these sound incredible, Hackathon projects can and often are encouraged to be much more simpler. You will be working for less than 24 hours and not many people can come up with a fully functional, bug free program.

The week before the Hackathon, we work with several on-campus organizations like ACM and Scientista to organize beginner-friendly workshops. We also have a hands-on workshop during the hackathon so students can come out with something to show. I would highly encourage students to attend these. We also lead a Project Ideation workshop both before and during the hackathon. If you don’t have an idea or a team, this would be a great place to start.

During the hackathon, don’t feel rushed to start working on your project. Spend the first 2 – 3 hours discussing what you want to build and what technologies you want to use. Try to find a project you’re really excited about. Write it down and break it into smaller tasks. Remember, it is very hard to stay motivated and work on a project if it is too difficult or too big, even if it checks all the “buzz” words.

Next, spend at least an hour before the submission deadline preparing your pitch. This is essential but often overlooked. You likely worked all night on your project so you want to present it to the judges in the best way possible. If you are in a team, maybe assign 1 – 2 members to work on the pitch. Get creative here! If you didn’t get to complete your project, show what you worked on and the potential you see in your project once completed.

Finally, a hackathon is essentially 24-hours you put aside to work on all the cool technology aside from classes. You could just pull up a tutorial for a project and follow that to completion. Maybe build a simple to-do list or a Javascript game, or maybe a small android game. Whatever you might have been thinking of but didn’t get to due to classes. We also have several sponsors and representatives attend UB Hacking. Take some time to talk to them during their workshops for the fireside chats!

One last note, due to the space and budget limitations, we often don’t get to accept as many student as we would hope to. If you weren’t accepted, you can still get involved by volunteering or mentoring. It’s a lot of fun and you definitely get to meet a lot of amazing students who are active in the department this way (+ free food and swag!).

We look forward to seeing you at UB Hacking!