Virginia Tech is hosting a series of "hacking" workshops next month for Innovative computer engineering, computer science and electrical engineering students, school officials announced.
An enterprising group of student from the university's College of Engineering is forging ahead with a new initiative that may make Blacksburg a major destination for hackers nationwide.
In April, more than 450 programmers and technology developers gathered in Cassell Coliseum for VT Hacks, a three-day event that challenged participants to develop innovative ideas that integrated software programming and hardware development. The event was the largest "hackathon" in the southeastern United States.
Hackathons, a growing trend at colleges and universities nationwide, encourage students' technical ingenuity and creativity through intensive collaboration and experimentation. At VT Hacks last April, participants worked 36 straight hours in teams of two to four people to develop new ideas, or "hacks."
Building on the success of the spring event, organizers will host two weeks of instructional hackathon workshops in November. The workshops will be held Nov. 3 through 7 and on Nov. 10 through 14 at several locations on the Virginia Tech campus. Another 36-hour hackathon is planned for the spring semester.
The workshops will introduce student participants to different applications of programming and hacking on topics ranging from iOS and Android development, to interfacing with the physical world using Arduino and Raspberry Pi.
