What the hack? Students gather for problem-solving session

Build real world applications and hack for a positive change is the premise of DeltaHacks.

DeltaHacks, an event organized by the student club HackitMac, is in its second year at McMaster University. The hackathon takes place over a 24-hour period this weekend at McMaster from January 16 to 17 and brings together 500 students from across Ontario.

Teams are created from all different disciplines and work to hack for a change. This year Apple ResearchKit will be attending for groups who choose to develop apps to help healthcare professionals. Apple ResearchKit is a framework that makes it easy for researchers and developers to create apps that contribute to medical studies.

Professors and Doctors will also be available to provide direction to students.

Mentors are present throughout the hackathon to provide assistance and workshops to teach students coding language that they can apply to their projects.

Last year one of the winning teams was a group of first year engineering students. They developed Project Julius, software that functions as a Google Chrome extension that scans video content for quick image changes that could cause epileptic seizures and promptly shuts down the video before a problem can arise.

After the event students can refine their projects and are encouraged to show them at related hackathons within a larger network of competitions.

HackitMac, a student-run club at McMaster, is for students from any faculty who are interested in learning, building, and experiencing different cool technologies. The club provides coding workshops and aims to create projects that target health and wellness, sustainability, and education.

HackitMac representatives were interviewed on CHCH about the upcoming event.