Virginia Tech Hackathon provides opportunity for technology development – WDBJ7

BLACKSBURG, Va. (WDBJ7) Virginia could soon be seeing all new kinds of technology thanks to college students around the Commonwealth.

Friday marked the kickoff of the annual VT Hacks Hackathon.

Hundreds of students from colleges and universities around the country were inside Torgersen Hall at Virginia Tech starting a 36-hour Hackathon.

It's an opportunity for young men and women who are studying different kinds of technology to come together and develop tools of the future.

There were computers, hardware, and cell phones. Everything the students will need to create new projects we could soon see in the real world.

Christopher Blair, from the VT Hacks Sponsorship Committee, said, "Things like you see on television, like all these big apps, most of them start right here at the Hackathon. We have a lot of [Computer Science] majors, a lot of engineering, business majors, everyone comes together to create these big projects."

With 400-500 students working in groups of four or less, the Hackathon promised to have a large variety of project ideas.

Virginia Tech student Jacob Merizian said, "We have this one idea that's starting to form kind of based on turning group chats into t-shirts, if you can picture it."

Virginia Commonwealth University student William Merritt added, "We're probably thinking about doing either an Android app or doing something with Raspberry Pi, some sort of autonomous development, something of that nature."

And because students made the drive to Virginia Tech from around the Commonwealth, ideas could be passed to try to develop them further.

Radford University student Mitchell Powell explained, "It really brings in the community. I'm from Radford, my friends are from Tech, I've seen some people from VCU and Bridgewater here, so it's really a great community event to try to reach out an network with folks."

But it was not just about the projects and ideas that come from the Hackathon. This could also lead to successful careers for these students.

VT Hacks Co-Head of Sponsorship Sean Crenshaw said, "A lot of the people who come to these events are Computer Science majors and companies love to see that they've worked on a personal project that they took their own personal time to make, especially when you get to work on a team."

The Hackathon kicked off Friday at 6:00 pm and will continue until Sunday afternoon.

But the students won't be working 36 hours straight. There will be breaks, meals, and time for fun, like a video game tournament planned.

But it will be exciting to see on Sunday what kind of technology has been developed and projects made.

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Virginia Tech Hackathon provides opportunity for technology development - WDBJ7