HackUMass XIV

HackUMass is the premier UMass Amherst hackathon, a 36-hour software sprint in the Integrative Learning Center (ILC) where you and 500+ other college students from various universities, colleges, and majors (grad and undergrad) form teams of up to 4 members (more is allowed, but there's no point because only 4 prizes are awarded per team) in order to vibecode build something awesome. This year is our 14th (XIVth???) one, and I'm part of the tech team, so please please please come 🥺 (there will be Insomnia Cookies and various sandwiches and pizzas from places I don't remember because I was coding when they were handing them out). There will be workshops for all skill levels (you can get some prizes in these just by attending!), mentors and sponsors scattered around the place to help you out, and prizes (did I mention prizes yet?). You don't even need to submit a project. You can just come to the event for the vibes.

Aside from what the higher-ups are telling me to sell you, I actually have some experience from previous iterations of HackUMass. Some of my first repositories on GitHub are HackUMass projects.

"Let me tell you something." - Jon Bernthal

At HackUMass XI in 2023, I got together with three friends I'd met while stealing (collecting) free college t-shirts during the first week of school, and we built a "Cat Fishing Simulator" in Unity. There's a pond. Cats spawn in a ring around it, wander around, and fish in it. The next year we worked on some ML app. I honestly don't remember anything else about these projects, but I do remember the memories I made with the boys: the random dancing, the singing, the late-night walks, and trying to game a few prizes via workshops.

If you've got nothing else going on that weekend, make sure to stop by, meet some chill people, build a project with a funny name, and make a few silly commit messages that you'll be embarrassed about in three years. Bring a team of four, find one on the Discord or at the opening ceremony, or just show up for the workshops. Pre-register at hackumass.com and I'll see you in the ILC!