The Fall Hackathon Season was an amazing way to say goodbye to 2015. Tens of thousands of hackers surged to fifty-two Major League Hacking Events in North America.
We were astonished by the amazing experiences had this season. Regardless of if you built a VR duel disk, attended your first event, organized your first hackathon, made a bicycle simulator, or participated in Local Hack Day, we’re delighted that you joined The League this season. Not only are you learning at hackathons, you’re also earning points for your school!
So, the question is which school came out on top?
We’re excited to announce the Major League Hacking Fall 2015 North America Season Winners: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
First Place – Rutgers University
The Rutgers Hackathon Club has been a mainstay of the hacker community since its founding in 2011. For the past 5 years they’ve been sending hordes of hackers to almost every event across the season. Rutgers has always been amongst the top ranked schools in the hackathon season. The school scored second last season, falling just short of the University of Waterloo.
Through intense effort and determination the Rutgers student hackers have finally earned first place.
We’re delighted for the opportunity to visit Rutgers and cheer “R-U RAH RAH” with all the talented hackers while presenting them with The Hacker Cup and loads of new equipment from Dell and Intel, our Flagship Sponsors and ardent supporters of the hackathon community. We’ll also be headed to HackRU later this season!
The next time you see a hacker from Rutgers be sure to congratulate them!
Top Ten Schools
By sending hackers to nearly every event across the season the University of Waterloo came in second and Purdue University snagged third. The top ten most determined schools this season were as follows:
| Rank | School | Participation Points | Merit Points | Total Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rutgers University, New Brunswick | 273 | 100 | 373 |
| 2 | University of Waterloo | 275 | 93 | 368 |
| 3 | Purdue University | 285 | 57 | 342 |
| 4 | State University of New York, Stony Brook | 258 | 81 | 339 |
| 5 | University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign | 306 | 19 | 325 |
| 6 | Carnegie Mellon University | 232 | 79 | 311 |
| 7 | University of Toronto | 231 | 56 | 287 |
| 8 | Georgia Institute of Technology | 250 | 27 | 277 |
| 9 | New York University | 256 | 11 | 267 |
| 10 | Rochester Institute of Technology | 232 | 20 | 252 |
You can see the full results on the Fall 2015 Season Standings Page.
Top High School: Bergen County Academies
We made an exciting announcement a few months ago that we would officially be supporting high school events in the Spring Season. High schoolers have become a force to be reckoned with, making up 8% of the Fall 2015 season and almost 1/3 of Local Hack Day. Bergen County Academies (BCA) is the second high school to ever claim the title of Top High School in the League. BCA students are almost never seen without a new friend from their school when at a hackathon. By bringing their friends and being great hackers, BCA earned the title, which we are excited to celebrate with them at hackBCA in a few weeks.
Visitors’ Cup: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Last season the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, claimed the title of Visitors’ Cup. We saw them at the Spring 2015 Season Finale, Hack the Planet. There we heard how excited they were for the coming season. That excited soon translated into securing the title for a second season in a row.
How to Win in Spring 2016
Want your school to win the Spring 2016 North American Season? Here are the pro-tips on how to do it:
First and foremost, hackathons are about learning, building, and sharing. The season rankings are specifically engineered to reward students for bringing their friends to hackathons. We believe the love of hacking is contagious and bringing someone to their first event is a surefire way to see them at many more in the future. It also earns many more points for your school.
Hackers who use their learnings to build and then share remarkable creations should also be rewarded. Merit Points are designed to do just that– by recognizing hackers that place at events without allowing it to eclipse the value of simply building something in the first place.
Learn, build, and share your way to the 2016 victory for your school!
Happy Hacking,
Nick Quinlan
North American Commissioner