What is a hack? Columbia Engineers explored this question in the MAKECU inaugural spring hardware hackathon. MAKECU is a new initiative started by members of Columbia’s IEEE Student Chapter. The group established this annual event to cultivate a stronger hacking culture and encourage a new generation of engineers at Columbia who aspire to make great things.
Teams had access to a standard circuits laboratory bench, complete with test equipment such as power supplies and oscilloscopes. Participating hackers came from Columbia and other schools including CUNY and the University of Maryland. Built in 24 hours of brainstorming, prototyping, and testing, the projects were judged by experts from Arduino, littleBits, Ardent Cell Technology, Altium, and Makerbot.
The event was sponsored by Atmel, Altium, IEEE, Intel, Bloomberg, Makerbot, Soldering Sunday, and Spruce Technology.