What is Hack the Northeast?
“When you hand good people possibility, they do great things.” ― Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter, angel investor, startup advisor
Enter Hack the Northeast (HTNE). As a group of STEM-driven students, we’ve come together to create a safe space for meaningful collaboration to help anyone realize their technological potential. We envision events where anybody in the Northeast, high school or college student, hacker or recruiter, beginner or expert, can attend and find endless opportunities.
To bring this idea to life, we held a hackathon — an opportunity where people get together to learn and compete in a computer programming event. Participants spend their time coming up with and developing innovative solutions to tackle real world problems. They receive support from mentors and workshops and can pitch their final projects to win prizes.
HACK THE NORTHEAST: OUR FIRST EVENT
Although we started organizing everything in late 2019, we planned to hold HTNE at the end of the school year. But in the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 virus had spread throughout the world, and any hope of having a traditional hackathon was lost. Luckily, in an age where technology has become ubiquitous, we could move HTNE online.
Despite the setback from COVID-19, we were able to hold a successful event. Here are the numbers:
- 36 hours of pure online innovation, design and coding
- 133 project submissions (check them out here: https://htne.devpost.com)
- 927 hackers in our discord
- 1039 signups on our Devpost
- 9 workshops from our workshop hosts, from companies like Microsoft, Google Cloud, and Linode (check out our recordings here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChXMAz3OlPrapgwazH6_5UA/featured)
- 14 Judges
HACK THE NORTHEAST: BEYOND
Galvanized by the rewarding experience, we felt that we could do it bigger and better in a second run. In keeping with the precautions from the government and CDC, we knew that we couldn’t hold a fully in-person event. However, we also recognized that physical collaboration is unmatched in terms of accessing resources and real-time teamwork. Thus, we opted to hold an event with a smaller physical hub while still hosting the majority of the participants online.
In the spirit of this “hybridity” and limitlessness, we named our new event Hack the Northeast: Beyond. Whether you can attend the “hub” or can only participate online, we offer workshops and the chance to cooperate with anyone.
Although we’re still in the process of finalizing the details of Beyond, we can give you the date: January 15–17, 2021!
We’ll be providing all the relevant information, from workshop updates to registration, on our website (https://hackthenortheast.com). We also encourage you to join our email list by filling out the “Stay connected” form.
We are so excited to present HTNE Beyond, and we hope you can blast off with us!🚀
