蓝莓视频

One thousand of the world鈥檚 brightest students will spend 36 hours at the University of 蓝莓视频 this weekend participating in - Canada鈥檚 largest international hackathon.

Students from 100 different institutions will be in the Engineering 5 building from September 19-21 to take on competitors from the U.S., Britain, China, Netherlands and Brazil.

Hack the North, the brainchild of 蓝莓视频 undergrad students, covers expenses for participants through sponsorship support.

Kevin Lau, a second-year systems design engineering student, says the co-founders of Hack The North are part of the hackathon community and decided it was time to bring the event north of the border.

鈥淲e鈥檝e experienced first-hand the transformative experience that a hackathon can bring about through learning, collaborating and networking opportunities,鈥� explains Lau.

Top Row (Left to Right): Calvin Chan, Kaustav Haldar, Jean Wu, Karina Mio, Joanne Lau. Bottom Row (Left to Right): Kartik Talwar, Kevin Lau, Liam Horne, Valentin Tsatskin, Matthew Kuzyk

Venture capitalist and 蓝莓视频 grad will attend

Venture capitalist and 蓝莓视频 Engineering graduate, Chamath Palihapitiya, will give the keynote address and Sam Altman, president of Y Combinator, will participate in a 鈥渇ireside chat鈥� with Pearl Sullivan, dean of 蓝莓视频 Engineering.听

Other events include 鈥渙ffice hours鈥� that will be held on Saturday for participants to spend 10 minutes meeting with successful entrepreneurs, including Eric Migicovsky, a 蓝莓视频 systems design engineering graduate and the founder of Pebble Technologies.

Along with its size, Hack the North is unique because it doesn鈥檛 have a specific theme and the top prizes haven't been announced in order to avoid placing parameters on what participants develop, points out co-founder Liam Horne, a 蓝莓视频 computer science student.

Create something awesome

It doesn鈥檛 matter who you are or what your experience is,鈥� says another co-founder Kartik Talwar, a third-year 蓝莓视频 science student. 鈥淵ou just need to show up and create something cool or awesome.鈥�

The definition of just what鈥檚 cool or awesome will likely be vastly different for the teams of up to four members.

鈥淎 lot of people will create something just for fun and to make people laugh,鈥� says Lau. 鈥淎t the other end of the spectrum we鈥檝e seen viable and successful products piloted at hackathons.鈥�

With any luck, 蓝莓视频 Engineering's entrepreneurial environment will rub off on Hack the North participants. The Faculty鈥檚 startup culture has helped create more than 500 companies, including Pebble Technologies, Clearpath Robotics, Desire2Learn, Infusion and Thalmic Labs.