Hackers to build mobile apps in 40-hour competition

This weekend, PennApps will be hosting an event to see what hackers can do with 40 hours, a challenge to create phone programs.

The PennApps Hackathon marathon will run for the third time from 8:00 p.m. Jan. 14 until noon on Jan. 16.

Though the organizers believe that Penn doesn’t receive enough credit for the skill of its hackers, PennApps organizer Alexey Komissarouk is confident that Penn hackers will hold their own against foreign competition. Other regional schools will be sending representatives to compete.

According to Komissarouk, hacking isn’t only a question of programming skills, but rather a test of creativity and utility. He described the Hackathon as a grueling 40-hour challenge.

Hackathon judge and founding member Angels Gabriel Weinberg said the event encourages programmers to do in one weekend what their real-world counterparts could spend up to months doing, which is “actually pretty amazing [and] generally entails no sleep.”

Dave Jagoda, a Penn Apps judge and Director of Technical Talent at venture capital firm Andreessen-Horowitz, explained the competition takes advantage of the elements of hacking as an art form. One of Jagoda’s favorite things about computer science is that you can build “something totally on your own,” with the only limitation being your mind and creativity.

At the end of the weekend, hackers will present their new applications to the panel of judges where they will be evaluated according to five criteria, Weinberg said: functionality, design of visual components, ease of navigation through the interface, overall creativity of the application and relation to this year’s theme.

This year’s theme has not yet been announced and will be unveiled later to keep the “element of spontaneity” that Komissarouk said characterizes the competition.

In the past, however, Hackathon themes included utility to the average Penn student. This yielded diverse creations, such as a stress-relief game that has been compared to “Dance, Dance Revolution” for smartphones.

Other successful applications from previous competitions that resonated with Weinberg included programs that could print documents or find rent prices for off-campus living.

The event promises, as Weinberg said, “new ideas from start to finish” that will provide participants with hands-on experience and spectators with original and novel creations. “It’s actually amazing … to see some of the things these folks can build in just 40 hours,” Jagoda said.

Spectators are welcome at the demonstrations in Wu and Chen Auditorium in Levine Hall on Jan. 14 at 6:30 p.m. and the unveiling of the applications on Jan. 16 at 1:30 p.m.

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