WHACK Fall 2018, Wellesley College

At WHACK, you can have fun, be creative, build, break, learn, and ask questions in a space that celebrates diversity.

At the sixth iteration of WHACK, the Wellesley College hackathon, over 300 students from colleges throughout the U.S. Northeast will come together for 36 hours to turn their ideas into reality.

Whether you’re a seasoned developer or designer, or just starting out as a beginner, there’s something at WHACK for you.

You’ll enjoy a weekend of awesome tech, food, swag, workshops, and mini-events while learning from distinguished speakers, inspiring mentors, and peers. We consider WHACK a success if you make new connections and gain skills that will stay with you long after WHACK is over.

7:00 - 10:00 AM

Breakfast

mingle and eat

9:00 - 10:00 AM

Workshop: Introduction to Unity Engine and building games

Location: Lulu 415

Introduction to Unity Engine and building games

Skill Level: Intermediate

What You Need: Knowledge of Unity, C# is a plus

9:00 - 10:00 AM

Fireside Chat: Fidelity’s Technical Internships and Leap Program

Location: Lulu 413

Come learn about the multitude of technical opportunities at Fidelity Investments! We will be sharing with you all the details about our company, our technology internship program and our entry level technology training and development program called Leap! You will hear from a technical recruiter who manages the technology roles in New England and understand if this could be the right opportunity for you!

Skill Level: Beginner

10:00 - 11:00 AM

Fireside Chat: Giving Feedback as a Woman in Tech

Location: Lulu 305

Let's discuss the challenges of giving and receiving feedback, how to use feedback to create change, and how to keep feedback from furthering the negative perception of an assertive woman's voice in the workplace.

Skill Level: Beginner

10:00 - 11:00 AM

Fireside Chat: Getting onboarded - How to sell yourself to coworkers/management

Location: Lulu 210

Even employees in technical roles will have to handle an ensemble of interpersonal relationships. We'll chat on 10 or so tips to cultivate a mindset that is productive, strategic, and most importantly genuine.

Skill Level: Beginner

10:00 - 11:00 AM

Workshop: Breaking the Code: Resume Writing for Success

Location: Lulu 413

During this workshop we will have a University Talent Agent from Fidelity Investments break down the do’s and don’ts for resume writing and interviewing.

Skill Level: Beginner

What You'll Need: laptop or notebook for taking notes, pen for making edits should you want to make edits as we go on your hardcopy resume; may bring resume for editing/review with workshop leader 1 on 1

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Workshop: How To Quickly Put Up Your Personal or Buisness Static Website

Location: Lulu 415

Build your personal or professional website with bootstrap, node, and surge.

Skill Level: Beginner

What You''ll Need: Good text editor (rec. Atom or Sublime) and install npm. If you would like to set up a custom domain, buy it in advance. Recommended to have basic experience with HTML and CSS but not required.

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Workshop: Introducing the Google Cloud Platform

Location: Lulu 210

Introducing the Google Cloud Platform

Skill Level: Beginner

12:00 - 2:00 PM

Lunch

mingle and eat

1:00 - 2:00 PM

Workshop: Deep Learning: Beginners Intro

Location: Lulu 413

Interested in joining the field of deep learning? This workshop will guide you through tutorials that will get your hands on the keyboard, giving you the jump start you need! Both Danyal and Will are recent grads and have jobs in the field of machine learning. They also pursue personal projects such as building artificial intelligence diagnostic tools for the medical field, i.e. cancer diagnostic tools. Rapid prototyping with python and keras in this workshop on open source datasets.

Skill Level: Beginner

What You'll Need: Laptop with python 3 or higher (not 3.7) and corresponding version of keras, basic Python skills

1:00 - 2:00 PM

Fireside Chat: An Introduction to Digital Asset, Blockchain, and our Summer Internship Program

Location: Lulu 210

You've probably heard the buzz about blockchain and you may be wondering what's the difference between blockchain and bitcoin? What type of problems is blockchain looking to solve? What kind of people work on blockchain technology? Come meet the team from Digital Asset (DA) to get answers to these questions and learn all about distributed ledger technology (DLT), our company, and how to get involved!

Skill Level: Beginner

1:00 - 2:00 PM

Workshop: Get Your Head in the Cloud: Nutanix Tech Talk

Location: Lulu 415

This will be an overview of what our teams are doing at Nutanix and how you can get involved!

Skill Level: Beginner

2:00 - 3:00 PM

Workshop: Modeling value on the blockchain with Digital Asset

Location: Lulu 210

Have a great idea for a solution to a problem you think could be solved by blockchain? Come learn how to code using the Digital Asset Modeling Language (DAML) with Digital Asset (DA). DAML is a succinct, uniquely powerful contract modeling language built specifically for distributed ledgers that unambiguously codifies complex, real-life agreements.

Skill Level: Intermediate

2:00 - 3:00 PM

Fireside Chat: The Art of Pitching

Location: Lulu 413

sharing best practices and storytelling tips for making great pitches

Skill Level: Beginner

2:00 - 3:00 PM

Workshop: Build Alexa Skills with AWS

Location: Lulu 415

In this workshop, you will create your first Alexa skill using Alexa cookie book source code. It also covered reference implementation of an Alexa skill and how to test your skills.

Skill Level: Beginner/Intermediate

What You'll Need: Laptop and Knowledge of basic Node.js

3:00 - 4:00 PM

Fireside Chat: PANEL: Get Your Head in the Cloud: Life at Nutanix

Location: Lulu 413

This will be an overview of what our teams are doing at Nutanix and how you can get involved!

Skill Level: Beginner

3:00 - 4:00 PM

Workshop: 3D Web Graphics with Three.js

Location: Lulu 210

This workshop will provide a basic introduction to creating 3D graphics for a website. Websites typically use WebGL to allow the browser to leverage the user's on-board graphics processor for displaying graphics. WebGL is fairly low level, so we will focus on using the Javascript Library Three.js which provides a high level interface for many common 3D graphics features such as meshes, shaders, scenes, lighting, animation, etc. implemented in WebGL. In the workshop, we will implement a 3D scene of a planet in orbit of the sun in space. The skill learned from this workshop should allow you to use the Three.js library to create a variety of different scenes.

Skill Level: Intermediate

What You'll Need: Laptop (preferably linux) with python and a modern web browser (i.e. not Internet Explorer)

4:00 - 5:00 PM

Workshop: Build Your Own Business As Illustrated in Boba

Location: Lulu 305

Build Your Own Business As Illustrated in Boba

4:00 - 5:00 PM

Workshop: Neural Networks for Noobs

Location: Lulu 415

Neural Networks for Noobs

What You'll Need: Python and pip.

4:00 - 5:00 PM

Fireside Chat: Being an engineer at a security company

Location: Lulu 210

Insights on the interview process, performance reviews, and life at a security company

Skill Level: Beginner

6:30 - 8:00 PM

Dinner

mingle and eat

7:30 - 8:00 PM

MLH Cup Stacking in Alumnae Auditorium

Take a break and have some fun with cupstacking!

10:00 PM - 4:00 AM

Gamer's Guild Viewing and Gaming Sessions

Viewing party for Overwatch and League as well as some fun casual console gaming sessions

12:00 - 1:00 AM

Midnight Snack

mingle and eat

What is a hackathon?
It’s a grand gathering of people to make their ideas come to life. Think out of the box, try new technologies, ask questions, make mistakes, discover a new language, and have fun! We will be following Major League Hacking's Code of Conduct. Check out their video explaining what a hackathon is here.
What if I have no experience with coding or hackathons?
Don’t sweat it! We’ve purposefully designed WHACK to offer an encouraging and supportive environment. At WHACK, you’ll quickly learn from our workshops and army of mentors, as well as your team members and other students.
When is the deadline to apply?
The deadline to apply is the midnight of October 13, 2018, and decisions will be sent out in the following weeks.
Who can attend? Is this event only for women?
We welcome any undergraduate college student 18+ to participate in WHACK. It’s important to keep in mind that we are looking to create a welcoming and empowering space for women and other underrepresented identities in tech. If you have any questions about this, please contact us!
How will mentorship work?
We believe that mentorship is essential to an effective learning experience. You will have access to wonderful mentors throughout the entire event who will help guide you and help you troubleshoot, including industry professionals, Wellesley College alums, faculty, and experienced hackers.
How will teams work?
Each team may have between 2-4 people. You and your friend may apply as a team, but everyone must submit individual applications. Members of teams who apply together will all receive the same acceptance decision.

We’ll also be facilitating team-formation activities before and during the event to help you find teams. Although you’re welcome to hack on your own, only teams are eligible to win prizes.

NOVEMBER 2-4, 2018 @ WELLESLEY COLLEGE

At WHACK, you can have fun, be creative, build, break, learn, and ask questions in a space that celebrates diversity.

TeLisa Daughtry

WHACK

MINI EVENTS

SPONSORS

MLH