On a chilly, Saturday morning in San Francisco, the fog was just starting to clear, when the bus pulled up to PubNub’s downtown office. University students from Stanford, Berkeley, and Santa Clara filtered out of the bus and into the office, where they’d hack away for the next 24 hours, resolute and determined to win it all. The Accenture Hackathon Games were about to begin, and their schools’ very reputation was at stake.
So who won big? Who got their hands on the awesome prizes? Which school earned eternal bragging rights? We’ve got all your answer’s here, devs’!
Team building… with LEGOs!
The Accenture Hackathon Games were not like your ordinary hackathon. Teams were judged not just on the quality of their hack, but also the quality of the teams themselves. In between hacking, teams competed in team-building activities designed to break the ice and improve their dynamics. They were judged on their performance in these “games” as much as they were on their hacks.
Hacking away through the night….
Say what you will about these teams, but you can’t claim they weren’t enthusiastic and passionate. They repped their schools hard, and put in their all to come out ahead. Of course, there could only be one GRAND CHAMPION, though teams also snagged some sweet prizes from our sponsors. And of course, everyone walked away a winner, knowing they built something cool and useful in just one day!
Santa Clara University’s Team Space demos its Chatroulette-esque app, “Scalawag.”
We’d like to thank our awesome judging panel: Amoly from Dolby, Dave from PubNub, Ankur from Amazon, Eric from BitPay, John and Jyrki from Accenture, and Jordan from Sinch. It was no easy task choosing the winners, so thanks for taking it on yourselves to make such a difficult choice!
Left, to right: Andre, Kunal and Zach. Together, they are UC Berkeley’s Bearforce, and the Accenture Hackathon Games’ Grand Prize Winners!
So who won? UC Berkeley’s sole team, Bearforce, won the GRAND PRIZE for their app, “College Connect,” which connects college freshmen to upperclassmen for quick, anonymous advice and feedback. Congratulations, Team Bearforce – and we’ll see you at the HACKcelerator next year! GO BEARS.
Ah, and let’s not forget the teams who also won sponsor prizes:
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Nanana’s [Santa Clara]: Won the Dolby prize for “Musica Jams,” a social networking app for musicians. Find people to jam out with, and get feedback on your “jams!”
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Radiant [Santa Clara]: Won the Amazon AND PubNub prizes for “Feedbats,” like Reddit for images, real-time upvoting included!
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Hacker Masters [Stanford]: Won the BitPay prize for “Campus Bubble,” another campus connection app… which accepts Bitcoin!
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Space [Santa Clara]: Won the Sinch prize for “Scalawag,” which is like Chatroulette… but with voice instead of video!
So once again, congrats to all our winners, and to everyone who came. Until next time, happy hacking!
Be sure to follow Accenture for more awesome tech news. You can also see more pics of the Hackathon Games here. And, of course, follow us to know when the coolest hackathons come to your area.
