Upgrading urban life with HackRPI 2024

The 2024 Hackathon hosted by Rensselaer’s HackRPI Organizing Team was a success with over 450 hackers and many volunteers, judges, and sponsors in attendance. During the opening ceremony on Saturday morning, President Xenia Khusid ’25 and Vice President Adwait Naware ’25 led the initial presentation. Khusid urged everyone to try their best, as the project experience is meant to help students learn and develop their skills, even if the final result doesn’t completely work. The theme was “Urban Upgrades,” challenging students to explore how urban areas, infrastructure, and sustainability could be improved through code. Teams of up to four competed for cash and physical prizes by creating projects in a 24-hour period.

Professors, industry sponsors, and specialists judge the hackathon based on practicality, utility, creativity, technical difficulty, effort, user experience, collaboration, and learning. During the opening ceremony, Major League Hacking coach Jade Yee introduced herself, explaining that she was helping as a mentor throughout the event. Additionally, she led the GitHub Copilot workshop, which was one of many workshops throughout the day. Multiple presentations were given by various professors and industry professionals on topics such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

The first keynote speaker was Dr. Eric Ledet of the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship, who spoke on the theme, “Urban Upgrades.” He spoke about the high poverty rates and different opportunities to develop important cities. Dr. Ledet urged students to use their coding abilities to explore urban challenges and consider the people that could be affected by their project.

Founders of thinair Dan Lannon ’19 and Sam Hogan spoke about their technology startup to update user interfaces. Additionally Joe Templin ’94, former president of the Autism Society of the Greater Capital Region spoke about entrepreneurship, encouraging students to know that failing is allowed—and encouraged.

Throughout the hackathon, different sponsors held networking events like Fireside Chats or technical workshops. Monster Energy supported the event with sponsored drinks to keep energy up throughout the 24-hour period. At 11 pm on Saturday, students got to enjoy free boba from Taichi Bubble Tea Latham.

The project showcase presentation started Sunday at 11 am, where teams showed their projects to the judging team and the rest of the hackers. Later in the day, Khusid and Yee announced winners of the event, where Best and second-Best Hack with a prize of $1500 and $750 was given to teams WalkR and Shelfie. For a complete list of winners, go here.. For more information, see the HackRPI website.