Presentation videos are now available from the 3rd annual Steacie Library Dungeon Hackfest that took place on February 18-19, 2015.

The intense 30-hour event was jointly organized by York University Libraries and LaunchYU, York University’s Entrepreneurship program.  58 students from various faculties gathered early on a Thursday morning during Reading Week to kick off the Hackfest with the initial pitching of ideas. Following this year’s theme, “Hacking for a Better world,” participants took turns describing 14 ideas that would make the world a better place.  What followed was a lively and organic process out of which 9 teams emerged.  Students from business, environmental studies, computer engineering, history, political science, etc. all brought their particular skill sets to the table to come up with a product and business model to support it.

The teams then began hacking in earnest, and they were treated to a varied learning experience.   Experts from the York and local communities were present to mentor the groups on technical and business aspects of their projects.

Lightning talks were given by local entrepreneur Lalit Guglani on “How to Create a Start Up” and Dr. Charlene Zeitsma from the Schulich School of Business on “Social Entrepreneurship”.

Organizers, along with partners from UIT and the Lassonde School of Engineering ensured participants had access to rich resources including a selection of private and public databases, various online tools and resources from the Libraries.  The students’ reaction was enthusiastic:

“I have learned more in these two days, than what I might learn during an entire semester"

-said one of the undergraduate students while highlighting how this event taught him the practical use of the skills they learn during their academic year. In addition, Lassonde EECS 1001 students were able to use participation in the Hackfest as part of their course requirement.

“EECS 1001 serves to expose students to the breadth of computer science,” says Professor Rick Wildes, Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “Involvement the Hackfest provides a hands-on complement to lecture-based introduction of topics.”

Hackfest culminated in team presentations on Friday, February 19. Many members of the York community were in attendance.

Presenter Carly Naismith, PhD candidate in History, felt that there is a need for more accountability and improved accessibility to charities around the world. She, along with her teammates from the Lassonde School of Engineering created Comparity, a platform to compare different charity organizations and provide more transparency for donors, volunteers and policy-makers. As Naismith explains, “The success of this model means that we have a more aware public who knows how to make a more efficient and effective contribution.”

Nikita Iliushkin, an undergraduate student at the Schulich School of Business sought to connect drivers with home owners willing to rent out their driveway spaces in order to utilize the latent capacity of parking spaces in a densely populated neighbourhood. The team presented a live demonstration of Peer Parking which identified various parking spots around Keele campus.

Also presented were CheckIt, which searches for university courses by date and time; Relnuz, an edited website for citizen journalists; Fit Foodie, calculating nutritional requirements for the day and recommending an appropriate restaurant; Kaya, a productivity tool to lock a device screen to certain notifications while studying; AZIO,  a crowd sourced community directory; Hobbiests, a social media site to connecting people with similar hobbies and Simple Weather, helping with clothing choices for different types of weather.

"This is my first Hackathon and I've been really impressed by what other teams have been able to do,” said Jasdeep Singh from the Lassonde School of Engineering. “it's an eye opener to a different world for me...thanks for putting it together!"