Coders spend weekend at HackRice

BY PATRICK KURP

ARcode (Audio Response Code), an app that permits the sending of data using sound, won its designers the $3,000 first-place prize in the fourth annual HackRice hackathon.

More than 250 caffeine-fueled coders, hackers, programmers and friends took part in the hackathon at Rice Jan. 30-Feb. 1; the winners collected $8,350 in prizes.

The 24-hour hacking marathon was held in Rice Memorial Center’s Grand Hall and was organized by the Rice Computer Science Club, HackRice was open to all programmers and designers, including people not enrolled at Rice. Participants formed 44 teams, and between noon Saturday and noon Sunday created assorted digital projects such as apps and other software.

“Most of the students staked out a working area among the cords and power strips in the Grand Hall and Sammy’s,” said Aaron Roe, a senior in computer science and technical chair of the Computer Science Club. “They worked together throughout the night. There was an air of collaboration, not competition. Everybody seemed to thoroughly enjoy the event.”

The 16 judges came from the faculties of the Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering departments, Rice alumni and from some of the 16 sponsors of the event. Criteria used to judge the projects included innovation and creativity, technical complexity, impact/potential and polish.

Members of the team that designed the award-winning ARcode were Gene Hsu of Austin, Texas; Joseph Lee of Berkeley, Calif.; YuXuan (Andrew) Liu of San Francisco; Xinhe Ren of Berkeley; William Wang, freshman in computer science at Rice; and Joseph Lee of Berkeley. Prizes included tablets and medals from Major League Hacking and a one-year subscription to GraphicStock for each member. ARcode was also named winner in the Best Use of a Microsoft Product category, for which each member received a Nokia Lumia 1520.

Second place went to SeeAll, an app that superimposes a selfie onto a video of the user’s surroundings: “Capture the entire moment and share the whole perspective.” Team members, all from Rice, were Miles Lee, junior in economics; John Poehlmann, junior in history; Blane Townsend, sophomore in computer science. They won $1,500 and medals from Major League Hacking.

Third place went to Guess Hue?, a game in which players race against the clock trying to match a color shown on the screen with the same color in their surroundings. Team members, all in computer science at Rice, were freshman Jordan Szymczyk, sophomores Matthew Hammond and John King and juniors Greg Kinman and James Lockard. Prizes included $1,000 and medals for each team member from Major League Hacking.

The award for Best Use of Hardware went to SecureTap, an Android app for securely authenticating online services by tapping a registered RFID card to an Arduino-controlled sensor. Team members from Rice were Emilio Del Vecchio, freshman in electrical and computer engineering and computer science; Kevin Lin, freshman in computer science; Daniel Faraldo, freshman in chemistry; and Andy Yuwen, freshman in chemical and biomolecular engineering; Juarez Aires Sampaio Filho, visiting student from Brazil, was also a team member. The received $1,000.

The award for Best Use of EBay/PayPal/Venmo went to Talent, a Web application that permits Venmo users to generate and manage printable payment codes. Team members, all from Rice, were Brett Gutstein, sophomore in computer science and mathematics; Jake Nyquist, freshman in computer science; Philip Taffet, freshman in computer science and mathematics; and Jose Carlos Vera, freshman in mathematics. Each received a Star Wars-themed Lego set.

The People’s Choice Award went to Peel, an Android app that takes any image and generates a filter for it. Team members, all from Rice, were seniors Yi Hua and Yoko Hongyu Li, both in computer science; Zhifan Li, junior in computer science; and Cecilia Zhang, senior in electrical and computer engineering. The prize was $500.

The award for Indeed Most Helpful App went to Pursonal, a household budgeting app using data on average spending across multiple demographics. It was developed by Jacob Van Geffen, Rice freshman in computer science and mathematics. He received a Moto 360.

The award for SnapStream Most Creative App went to Munchin, an app that permits users to post plans to visit a restaurant and take meal orders from other customers for a percentage fee. Team members, all sophomores in computer science at Rice, were Joseph Hwang, Nicholas Kwon, Luke Samora and Stuart Wyrough. Each received DKNight Magicbox Bluetooth speakers.

The award for 2Sigma Best Data Visualization went to RGB Shift, a dimension-hopping arcade platform for computer games. Tim Van Baak, Rice sophomore in computer science, received a $1,000 gift card.

“This year we tried to maintain an atmosphere of fun,” Roe said. “We raffled off prizes every hour, totaling $1,500.” Participants had plenty of food and caffeine, he said.