HackBU S2015 was a 36 hour hackathon that took place over the weekend of March 20th – 22nd. Hosted at Binghamton University, the aim of the event was to bring together and foster a community of individuals passionate about solving interesting problems.
Our co-founder, Swift was at the heart of where all the magic happened. Also thanks to whom, two-8 passenger stretch limos were ordered on the Sunday to shuttle HackBU hackers back to campus in style!
Some incredible hacks built during the weekend included an Oculus / Leap Motion horse racing game, a Kickstarter for Tutors which rewarded educational content creators, and HackBU winners – a Pebble watch hack that enabled you to play Super Mario Bros on it!
The project that caught our eyes the most though, were winners of Best Hardware Hack – Super Duper Flight Simulator. As the name suggests, the team went on a mission to create a flight simulator played using the Oculus Rift with realistic rolling via a PVC apparatus.
Massive PVC pipe contraption @HackBinghamton @MLHacks pic.twitter.com/mDRa8qmD57
— William Jagels (@WJagels) March 22, 2015
According to Swift, the students actually didn’t manage finish it, but their story was epic. They ordered a bunch of wiper motors that didn’t arrive so they had to drive to a junk yard, truck sales place or something where they haggled with the dude over some junk motors. Then they blew out both of their power supplies and had to go to walmart to buy more.
Software component worked well though.
At every hackathon, we recognize individuals that go out of their way to make an impact on the hacker community. As for HackBU, our special Hackathon Heroes shoutout goes to the Pebble Crew!
The story goes: One of the teams discovered a bug in the Pebble API which prevented their hack from working but the Pebble reps gave them a shoutout during judging and at the final ceremony. The team also received a consolation prize for their efforts which was a super awesome gesture from the Pebble crew!
Click HERE to see all HackBU submissions on ChallengePost.
We’ve uploaded all our official photos from the weekend on our Facebook page. See them all HERE.
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