#intel_xdk

HackTX featured Texas’ top collegiate developers at the University of Texas at Austin last weekend.  This 24-hour hackathon attracted students from Texas A&M,  UT Dallas, and more. The event took place at the university’s Student Activity Center occupying three floors for hacking.

On Saturday morning, students gathered at the center’s auditorium for the opening ceremonies.  HackTX organizer Taylor Barnett kicked off the event and welcomed the over 500 participants.  

It was great to see many familiar mentor faces including SendGrid’s Scott Motte.

MLH’s and HackTX emcee Swift introduced the API sponsors.  

The Intel Mashery prize for the Best App Using the Mashery API Network: up to (3) Husan Quadcopters and up to (5) Basis health tracker watches.  

Intel’s Steven Xing joined me in helping developers onboard with Intel Mashery technologies including the Intel Edison.  Hacker League was used by HackTX to manage app submissions and judging setup (see all 105 projects here).

Participants made their way to the center’s ballroom which housed the sponsor tables and one of the many hacking spaces.  Steven and I were met by many developers eager to learn and build with Mashery API Network, Intel Edison and XDK.  

Late evening, MLH’s Jon Gottfried & Swift announced the cup stacking challenge.  Developers left their hacking spaces momentarily to form teams in building the tallest stack of cups in just minutes. 

The project expo started Sunday morning in the ballroom with 105 projects.

The Mashery prize was awarded to the four member team that created the alerting disease travelers’ app “Threat Wire.”  They used the USA TODAY API to search news for disease related articles and analyzed this information for a threat level score.  Users can then alert others of potential disease in a certain area through the apps messaging system managed by SendGrid and Context.IO

An Intel honorable mention went to the two member team that created “Binary Hero.”   In this video game which used the Intel Edsion, a series of symbols descend on the screen and users tap a button to eliminate the symbols at a certain point and time.

The 1st place HackTX prize went to “uDTV.” This winning four member team controlled DIRECTV through the Pebble Watch and a mobile app they built with Intel XDK.

I want to thank Taylor Barnett and all the HackTX volunteers for helping organize this awesome event.

Saturday afternoon, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich (aka "BK") visited Cal Hacks with his daughters. They came by the Intel Mashery table, met our team, and I showed them awesome apps built by developers using Intel XDK.

The 36-hour Cal Hacks collegiate hackathon took place at UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium last weekend. Students from UCLA, Stanford, Harvard, UDub and more made the journey to Cal, some by plane and others by bus.  Intel CEO, Brian Krzanich attended as well.  Over a thousand developers participated with close to 200 completed projects.  Participants took up four stadium floors and others hacked outdoors.

Intel’s Platform Evangelist and Edison hardware specialist Steven Xing joined me in setting up our Intel Mashery sponsor table fully equipped with Intel hardware.  We brought the new Intel Edison boards for participants interested in hardware hacking. 

I later journeyed outside the stadium where hundreds of developers waited in line for the event to start.  I made new friends and handed out Intel Mashery swag.

Cal Hacks' Director, Alex Kern kicked off the event in the late evening.

During the opening ceremonies, I was greeted by many familiar faces including fellow evangelists Justin Woo from Paypal and Sendgrid’s Nick Quinlan who also emceed the event. 

The outdoor stage setup for API demos was amazing.  I faced the Cal Hacks crowd with the backdrop of a dark sky filled with stars.  The prize for the Best App Using the the Mashery API Network: up to (3) Rolling Spider Parrot MiniDrones and up to (5) Basis watches.

Developers visited our Intel Mashery table on the second floor seeking Mashery API Network, Intel Edison, and XDK app builder support.  Some even created a social space right along side our table chatting about development, school, and just having fun. I set up on the spot races challenging developers to create a mobile app with Intel XDK using the Mashery API Network, and the majority of participants accomplished this feet in just minutes.

On Saturday, Mashery’s Vivek Chopra, George Perry, and Bob Pielock joined Steven and I providing Intel Edison and Mashery support.  This trio won the TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon in San Francisco with their “Shower With Friends” water consumption app using the Intel Galileo board.

Check out BK’s #hackthebear tweet in support of the hackathon community.

Teams demoed their projects on Sunday including “Nextile Shurt” built by HackGT Director "Pav" and his team.  They used two Intel Edison boards connected to a team member's back displaying real time motion data through a connected web app.

The winner of the Mashery prize was awarded to a three member team that created “Tomato."  This app is a robust voice command interface for the web which uses the APIs: SportsData, USA TODAY, and Rotten Tomatoes.

Two finalist teams used Intel Mashery technologies including “Kontroll” built with the Edison and Myo allowing users control over connected devices by way of hand gestures, and the Rotten Tomatoes API was used in "Movie Hoppr," the movie viewer management app.

Thanks goes to Alex Kern, Eva Zheng and the entire Cal Hacks team for organizing this outstanding event.

Comedy Hack Day returned to San Francisco bringing together developers, comedians and the local community for a weekend hackathon full of laughs and innovation.  This marks Cultivated Wit's fifth inception of the event also known as Comedy Hack Day Five.

The opening ceremonies took place last Friday night at Parisoma coworking spaces, and was the location for the two days of hacking.

Cultivated Wit’s Baritunde Thurston and Craig Cannon kicked off the festivities and hilariously announced the event’s details.  This was my first Comedy Hack Day and when I entered the stage to demo the Intel Mashery API Network, I transformed myself into the comedic spirit of the event. I requested all participants to stand and join me to demonstrate their "most ridiculous dance."   It was quite a spectacle. 

Craig then presented a video of the previous Comedy Hack Day winners “Timesify” which turns users most embarrassing sites into the look of the New York Times preventing shame.  The prize for the Wackiest Use of the Intel Mashery API Network: Up to (3) Flux Capacitor USB Car Chargers, up to (3) 4-packs of Oatmeal posters, and up to (5) Basis Health Tracker Watches.  Prepitches began, teams formed, and hacking commenced shortly after.  Sarah-Jane Morris joined me in promoting our Intel Mashery technologies, distributing Intel Edison development boards and meeting the wonderful participants. 

Teams worked continuously and some stayed overnight, and I did my best to stay up with them, helping them discover Intel's XDK, Edison and Mashery API Network.

Teams had until Saturday afternoon to submit their app descriptions to Hacker League.  I got the opportunity to demonstrate the new Hacker League features through directing volunteer Blake, who formed his team live on stage for the audience to follow.

Once teams submitted their projects, the first round of team demonstrations began.  Presentations incorporated a funny an innovative element. 

Participant Yosun excited the crowd with her Intel Edison controlled Cultivated Pocket Bot, a virtual robot with the ability to recognize people and speak about them poetically.

The top eight teams qualified to compete at the Comedy Hack Day Finals at the Brava Theater Sunday night, where I was joined by my Mashery teammates Sarah-Jane Morris and Vivek Chopra.

The five member team “I’m A Huge Fan” won the Mashery prize using the Beats Music and Rotten Tomatoes APIs.  This app allows users to get talking points about music, movies, and more so one can confidently join a conversation about something they know nothing about.

Comedy Hack Day winners “AwwCog” an Open Furby Platform allows users to carry out Python scripts with vocal cues when programming the furry Furby.  This allows people the ability to have engaging conversations with Furby and ask it questions about movies (this team used the Rotten Tomatoes API) and more. 

I want to thank Craig Cannon, Baratunde Thurston, Brian Janosch and the entire Comedy Hack Day team and volunteers for organizing this fun, hilarious, and awesome event.