[CSENews] News: Microsoft Hackathon Event

[Teresa Isela VanderSloot]

Microsoft working with the ACM and WIC hosted a "hackathon" in our

conference rooms on Saturday to develop apps for the new Windows7
phone.  The event ran from noon to midnight and both rooms were packed
at the start.  By the end it was down to about 25 stalwarts.  About a
dozen apps were demoed at the end (many worked in teams).  Given that
the students started from scratch in an unfamiliar environment the apps
were impressive.  A few that stick out in my mind were a multiplayer
Pictionary game, an app that blurs backgrounds behind face pictures, a
campus path-finding app, an app that locates faces in pictures, and some
organizational and social apps.  Of course, they were quite rough given
the abbreviated development time.  As a faculty member I was proud to be
able to say that these were our students.

Microsoft brought some serious prizes handing out 2 XBOXs (with
Kinects), 2 Nokia phones, and a dozen Samsung phones along with a bunch
of less valuable stuff.

Dr. Enbody