Durhack X, the 10th year of Durhack has just wrapped up and it was an absolutely fantastic event to be involved with. Durhack is our yearly 24-hour hackathon, hosted right here in Durham, in the Teaching Learning Center, where a bunch of students come together to hack together sketchy solutions to the problems set by the sponsors!
There truly are unlimited possibilities for creativity, from problems like the best use of Google Gemini’s AI, to the best use of Elevenlab’s AI, or the best use of AI on ARM, or.. Okay, it’s not ALL AI at Durhack.
There genuinely were lots of interesting themes, like “Bridging worlds” or “Legacy”, and there really were a lot of awesome (not hacky!) creations built based on them.
Highlights of the event: Free merchandise
The real reason we go to all these hackathons every year… There’s nothing quite like stocking up on the free Redbull then plastering your laptop with an un-necessary amount of stickers – such that nobody can even see what was originally there. And then putting on even more! What’s life without all the free tote bags, notebooks, Durhack mugs and pens to bring home to your family?!
Lunch and dinner at Durhack are free too. The food from the food trucks was delicious. I’d go even for just the free dinners. I’d go even for a lunch. Maybe I’m just hungry.
The Guild challenges and events
The weird and whacky challenges are an INTEGRAL part of the Durhack experience. Like finding the Durhack Dino, acting out your favourite algorithm, or building a model wind mill, there’s always plenty of fun challenges to participate in for prizes at the end.
Alongside these challenges, there’s all sorts of workshops and events going on, like swing dancing, women in tech, or the half-dozen workshops from all the various different sponsors, there’s never a shortage of activities to try.
Meeting new people
Durhack isn’t just Durham: students come from all around the country to participate every year. Of the over 600 participants, there’s no shortage of new people to meet at Durhack – whether you’re building your team on the fly or having a chat over the midnight pizza.
The 24-hour sprint is probably one of the best team-building exercises out there, working together on everything, coming up with ideas, planning building, and pulling intense all-nighters together.
And of course, the coding!
Of course, the point of a hackathon is to hack. Hackathons are an incredible opportunity to throw yourself out there and try new languages, new concepts, and projects you’d have otherwise not tried. After all, it’s only 24 hours, so why not try something new? Durhack is really is the perfect time to play around and see what incredible (horrendous) things you can cook up in the time you have.
Not to mention all the prizes you can win for your scrappy creations, like winning shark plushies for “Hackiest hack”, or Raspberry Pis for the most extreme jerryrigging of the chat interface. It’s an awesome opportunity for getting your hands dirty and winning something awesome to take home.
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