Join us!
At the seventh 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.
Join us!
Channels on transportation, team formation, and announcements. Slack will be our main method of communication throughout the weekend.
This is where you will submit your final projects. A Devpost support member will be available through Slack when submissions start rolling in.
Find a hackathon team here according to your skills, interests, and goals. Still looking for an interesting team? Create your own!
Schedule
WHACK will be held at Diana Chapman Walsh Alumnae Hall.
check in @ Alumnae Hall
mingle and eat
keynote from TeLisa Daughtry
ready, set, hack!
bring ideas & find team members!
Location: Lulu 413
introduction to AR/VR and how 3d models are used at Wayfair
Skill Level: Beginner
Location: Lulu 210
Why will serverless computing would change how we develop our application?
Skill Level: Intermediate
mingle and eat
mingle and eat
Location: Lulu 415
Introduction to Unity Engine and building games
Skill Level: Intermediate
What You Need: Knowledge of Unity, C# is a plus
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
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
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
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
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.
Location: Lulu 210
Introducing the Google Cloud Platform
Skill Level: Beginner
mingle and eat
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
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
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
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
Location: Lulu 413
sharing best practices and storytelling tips for making great pitches
Skill Level: Beginner
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
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
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)
Location: Lulu 305
Build Your Own Business As Illustrated in Boba
Location: Lulu 415
Neural Networks for Noobs
What You'll Need: Python and pip.
Location: Lulu 210
Insights on the interview process, performance reviews, and life at a security company
Skill Level: Beginner
mingle and eat
Take a break and have some fun with cupstacking!
Viewing party for Overwatch and League as well as some fun casual console gaming sessions
mingle and eat
submit to Devpost!
mingle and eat
science fair style
mingle and eat
prizes & awards
goodbye!
Keynote Speaker
TeLisa Daughtry is an Award-winning diversity & technology advocate; Serial Social Entrepreneur; angel investor; advisor; and author of 'Learn, Lead, Launch: a FlyTechnista's guide to Tech FLY & Hustle FLY'; a developer and technologist of 20 years; and Blockchain enthusiast.
She is passionate about creativity, technology, and entrepreneurship; and empowering women, youth, and people-of-color--in these spaces. In 2017, TeLisa was an honoree and recipient of an ACT4 Award; a Finalist for Code/Interactive 'Diversity in Tech Awards'; recognized on the SE100 most inspiring Social Innovations and Social Entrepreneurs around the world; named ‘Top 50 Visionary Women in Tech to Watch in 2017’ by Innov8tiv Magazine; and has been recognized as a ‘Changemaker’ by the United State of Women in 2016. She is a 2017 Ariane de Rothschild, Fellow; an alumni of Y-Combinator Startup School.
As an international speaker--she has spoken at the United Nations General Assembly, SXSW Edu, Google Women Techmakers; as well as several conferences, corporate, institutions, and community events; and has been featured on television, radio, and in publications such as Entrepreneur, Fox News, Black Enterprise, Cheddar TV, CNN, CBS Radio, Salon, Good Day New York, WeRule, Bustle, BOLD, and SWAAY. This FLYTechnista doesn't wear glass slippers, she "roundhouse-kicks GLASS CEILINGS"
Prize Categories
Best WHACK HACK (Sponsored by Fidelity)
Best Beginner
Crowd Favorite
Gamer's Guild Prize
Workshop Beast Team
MassCEC Best Clean Transportation Hack
Wayfair Best Use of 3D API
Kensho Case Study Challenge
Coding It Forward Social Impact Challenge
Best Used of OneDB
Best Use of Authorize.net
Best Chat Bot using Botkit & Cisco Webex Teams
Best use of Google Cloud Platform
Best use of Algolia API
Best Domain Registered with Domain.com
Best use of HERE.com
Best IoT Hack using a Qualcomm Device
Best use of Clarifai's API
Best Social Good Hack
FAQ
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.
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.
The deadline to apply is the midnight of October 13, 2018, and decisions will be sent out in the following weeks.
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!
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.
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.
All hackers are welcome to come once registered for the event.
Trust us, you won’t be hungry at WHACK! We’ll provide Friday night dinner, all meals on Saturday, and Sunday breakfast & lunch. We’ll also have a snack table, food surprises, and coffee throughout the hackathon. We work hard to accommodate all dietary restrictions and make healthy options available.
We will provide quiet sleeping areas at night, equipped with blankets and pillows. Bringing your own sleeping bag and eye mask is encouraged!
Yes!! Showers will be available throughout the event, courtesy of the Wellesley Keohane Sports Center. However, hackers are required to bring their own towels.
Please bring your student ID (and government ID highly encouraged), laptop, and chargers. We also recommend that you bring some warm clothing, a blanket, towel, toiletries, and anything else you might need in order to spend the night.
If you have a special circumstance, please stipulate it on your application. WHACK is ultimately a resource for you to learn, connect with others, and meet mentors in industry, so you'll get more out of it if you can stay for the whole event.
Shoot us a message at hello@wellesleyhacks.org or tweet at us @wellesleyhack and we’ll get right back to you!
Meet the team!
Introducing the 2019 WHACK organizing team. We’re all incredibly excited for you to join us and enjoy the amazing events we have lined up for you!
Celine Christory
Fatima Aslam
Avery Kim
Carmen Chan
Vera Ye
Jessica Li
Yihui Liao
Shirley Lei
Chloe (Yichen) Wang
Peggy Wang
Rachel Navarrette
Funing Yang
Tiffany Sharma
Gaby Inchoco
Marily Karageorgiou
ocelyn Cheng
Angela QianPast Sponsors
Want to sponsor for our 2019 hackathon? Contact us at sponsors@wellesleyhacks.org to learn more.
Partners
We are a student-run event organized with the support of the Wellesley Computer Science Club.
