UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The largest student-run technology event at Penn State will kick off this weekend when students from around the country converge on the University Park campus for HackPSU.
Beginning on Saturday, March 16, the biannual, 24-hour hackathon is sponsored in part by Penn State IT and is expected to draw to the Business Building nearly 1,000 competitors from multiple universities. There, they’ll race against the clock to create “hacks” or solutions to real-world problems.
In HackPSU’s case, those problems are presented in the form of challenges by sponsors like Google, General Motors, Geico, Microsoft and more.
“It’s a huge networking event,” HackPSU Marketing Director Colin Moran said. “Everyone on the HackPSU committee that sets it up has gotten an internship through this event, and we hear all the time, ‘If I hadn’t come, I wouldn’t have gotten my internship.’”
Registration is open and hackers can sign up until Saturday. There is no registration fee and free food is provided before hacking ends at 4 p.m. Sunday. A judging expo will follow.
There will be a major difference between this semester’s event and HackPSUs of the past. In an effort to bring fresh competitors into the hackathon, HackPSU’s executive committee is introducing a new competition track that will appeal to would-be hackers who lack significant computer programing or coding skills.
HackPSU’s executive team worked with global professional services firm Ernst & Young and the Smeal College of Business to create a business case competition open to teams of up to four students who will act as consultants and present their business plans to judges Saturday night.