About 400 students stayed up all night as they coded from noon Saturday to noon Sunday for SwampHacks.
During the second annual competition, students had 24 hours to create a software program from scratch in the basement of Marston Science Library. UF’s Association for Computing Machinery, UF’s Women in Computer Science Engineering club and UF’s Software Development Club hosted the event.
Students from UF and other state universities coded, and the event attracted about 100 more students than last year. By about 2 a.m. Sunday morning, some students had fallen asleep at their computers and on the floor.
Of the programs created, one could recognize faces and play the person’s favorite song. Another program combined Facebook events based on location so they would appear on one website together.
“Some people build pieces of hardware,” said Bernard Marger, a co-founder of SwampHacks. “They might hack together a robot.”
The three clubs decided to start one big hack-a-thon last year, the UF computer engineering senior said. Students of any major can attend the event as long as they apply and are a student in the academic year SwampHacks is held.
“At first it was, ‘let’s do it just for the school,’” the 21-year-old said. “Now it’s a state-wide hack-a-thon.”
Takashi Wickes said he decided to stay in computer science because of a hack-a-thon he attended last year.
He hopes the competition will encourage students from across Florida to code, the 19-year-old said.
“If we can convince one of those kids that’s unsure about computer science that there’s a great community, it would be worth it,” the UF computer science sophomore said.
Joshua Kegley, a UF computer science and engineering senior, said he and his team won the competition last year. Their program, “Schedule Chomper,” created sample course schedules for students based on the classes they wanted to take and their preferences for morning, afternoon or night.
The 28-year-old said his favorite part of SwampHacks is the number of people who make so many amazing things on the spot.
“In school you learn a lot of theoretical stuff,” he said. “In hack-a-thons, you’re working with the actual software and you have to learn it quickly. It emulates what it’s like to be in a real work environment.”
From left: Bradley Treuherz, a 21-year-old UF computer engineering junior, Anthony Colas, a 21-year-old UF computer engineering senior, Sergio Puleri, 20-year-old UF computer science junior, and Max Fresonke, a 21-year-old UF computer engineering junior, compete at SwampHacks on Saturday. The team won second place for their program, which recognizes people's faces and plays their favorite song.
