Outside the Box

At my very first hackathon experience this Sunday, I was blown away with what these students could complete in 24 hours.

The event, put on by hackNY, had students compete in a 24-hour coding bonanza where teams (solo or group) built applications off NYC startup platforms. Some of the platforms included Foursquare, Etsy, Tumblr, and The New York Times.

Not coming from a techie background, I was in awe during the presentation hour. I couldn’t help but notice the exhausted smiles, droopy eyes, and Coke bottles scattered throughout. Even with everyone on empty, the energy was high.

As groups showed their achievements and a few failings, I noticed the special camaraderie shared among the students.

When the award ceremony wrapped and prizes were given, the audience was told there was a week long voting session online. The winner in selected on popularity.

Below is a list of my (and some of the judges) favorites. Please keep in mind the applications were shown during the presentation, but I am not sure if they still work.

YPNHOI (most school award):

• Concept: Something wrong with Yelp and Foursquare-all the top results are based on popularity. They believe popularity does not correlate with coolness—the less trendy, the more cool. The application allows you to check coolness scores of local shops, while also providing ratings that may throw people off . Hate a place? Check in on Four Square. Love a place? Keep it on the D.L. with bad Tweets. When tested, Starbucks was so not cool.

MidiPhon (First Place):

• Concept: Developed by two NYU students in the music department, the application allows people to play music on their phone by themselves or with friends. Once you are done jamming out, a text is sent to you with the music. After an audience involved presentation, the applause were thunderous for the students.

Rejectile

• Concept: When a creep is bothering you, hand them a phone number. The digits aren’t yours but belong to Rejectile. When they attempt to call you, there message goes to the Rejectile website and can be seen and heard. If the creep doesn’t get the hint, after three failed calls, Rejectile sends them a text letting them know they are creepy. Try it out: 408-320-0174.

AdRunner (Second Place):

• Concept: A game of dodging ads. Once you lose, you are brought to that particular ad. It seemed rather addicting and a fun time-waster.

NY Times Curated Playlist:

• Concept: Search for stories on The New York Times newswire. Once it finds an article about an artist, their most popular song is added to a list on Spotify.

Check out the list of all the hacks here. Once you sign-up, click on the hack you want to vote for number one.

Leave your favorite Hack below.

 

 

 

Tech@NYU is revving up for their semi-annual Startup Week for entrepreneurs, techies, businesses, and more.

The event kicks off on Saturday with the 24-hour hackathon put on by hackNY, where teams compete to build applications and are rated on an “awesomeness” factor. The 2011 Spring winner was for an Etsy Shopping Network, an application that puts the entire Etsy catalog on your television.

After the caffeine infested, adrenaline rush event is finished, the week following is full of panels and workshops with various subjects.

The NY Tech Club began in 2009 when Trevor Owens wanted to find a way to bring together computer, business, and design students in order to collaborate on start-ups. He explained there wasn’t a lot going on at NYU with entrepreneurs and  wanted to create a center point for students. The first event “Business Meets Tech” took place in October of 2009 with only 50 attendees. Today, approximately 1,000 people attend the club events, which is quite an impressive growth rate for two years. The events are free to anyone and a list of future gatherings can be found here.