GrizzHacks is a 24-hour event for students to showcase their passion for technology and engineering.

According to Adam McNeilly, senior, sponsorship director for GrizzHacks and computer engineer major, student-run hackathons like GrizzHacks have been around since 2009 and have been growing each year. 

A lot of the organizers drew inspiration from similar events at Michigan State University (SpartaHack) and University of Michigan (MHacks).

According to its website, GrizzHacks, the first hackathon held at OU, is an opportunity for students to create hardware and software projects from the bottom up in one weekend.

“Anyone can participate, regardless of their major or experience with programming and engineering,” said junior Jack Stouffer. He is a management information system major and the logistics lead for GrizzHacks.

During the weekend, there were presentations from sponsors, mentors were available to help attendees with their project, and speakers who gave technical talks.

“Great opportunity for people to network and make connections with local businesses,” Stouffer said. “When you RSVP, you upload your resume, and your resume is sent to the businesses.”

There were also opportunities to relax and have some fun at a Bocce Ball tournament and a cup-stacking competition.

Attendees brought themselves, a laptop, and because it was a 24-hour event, personal hygiene products. Food and everything else needed was provided.

A panel of judges assessed the hack’s creativity and team’s user experience.

Judges included Peter Stouffer, president of Apollo America, Javier Fernandez, senior software engineer at Hello World, John Stouffer, senior information technology manager at Diamler AG, Daniel Marus, president at Controller Technologies Corporation and Serge Kruk, associate professor at OU.

Once the 24 hours were up, teams had the opportunity to give a two-minute presentation on their projects, which ranged from websites to cell phone applications.

Prizes were given out for the best developer tool, best domain name and first through third place overall.

The third place winner, a team of three, created a website called “Stocks,” which was designed to help users stay up-to-date with the stock market. 

The second place winner, a team of two, created a social media application called “Found!” which allows users to post their lost items on a map so users in the same area are able to see missing items and potentially claim a reward.

In first place, also a team of two, created “Euphony – Wireless Music Streaming,” which streams all a person’s music from a wireless SD card through Wi-Fi into a phone. 

GrizzHacks is a member of Major League Hacking (MLH), which is a student hackathon league that holds hackathons in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Europe. According to its website, MLH gives students the opportunity to build things such as websites, applications and hardware hacks.

“Now that it is over, I am most excited to see GrizzHacks become an annual legacy and trademark of Oakland University that will continue to bring people to this school as well as get our students involved,” McNeilly said.

For more information about GrizzHacks and this year’s winners, visit grizzhacks.com, grizzhacks.devpost.com or email [email protected].

Sidebar:

After the team presentations, there was another presentation by Rehman Ahmad, a junior studying mechanical engineering, which gave some advice and tips for the road to success.

• Newbie: everyone starts at step number one. No shame, no embarrassment, only improvement
• Setting priorities: set a goal, chase it and keep moving until the goal is set
• Choose the right career: don’t waste your time on letting it find you, you must go find it
• Build your empire: accumulate your mentorships
• Break the shell: do something innovative, inspiring and different
• Embrace confidence
• Feel like a superstar: place yourself at a higher standard, work harder and smarter