WildHacks 2022 Showcases Ingenuity and Creativity

On any typical day, you don’t have to search far to find students on campus coding through the night. At the end of spring quarter, 95 Northwestern students dedicated 24 hours to collaborate and develop compelling software during WildHacks 2022, Northwestern’s interdisciplinary hackathon.

Designed as an opportunity for students to learn programming skills and develop a project in an inclusive environment, the free event welcomed students of all skill levels, majors, and backgrounds.

Led by director Amy Guo, a fourth-year student in computer science at Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and communication studies at Northwestern’s School of Communication, students from Develop + Innovate for Social Change (DISC), Women in Computing, and the Northwestern University Student Chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE NU) organized WildHacks 2022.

To support participants with varying degrees of experience, the WildHacks team hosted workshops and shared resources with beginner-friendly tutorials. Women in Computing presented an “Intro to Git” workshop; the Northwestern Blockchain Group led an “Intro to Blockchain (Using Ganache)” seminar; and Xenah Developers provided hackers with an “Intro to Web Dev with React.” A Discord-based help channel and a group of peer mentors were available during the event to aid hackers.

The WildHacks organizing team also included:

• Programming and logistics chair Nicole Chen, a fourth-year student in computer science and industrial engineering at Northwestern Engineering
• Internal publicity chair Cindy Hu, a fourth-year undergraduate in computer science at Northwestern Engineering and in communication studies at Northwestern’s School of Communication
• External publicity chair Daniel Lee, a second-year student studying computer science and statistics at Weinberg
• Jiayan Luo, a third-year undergraduate in computer science at Weinberg
• Ryan Wong, a second-year student in computer science at Northwestern Engineering
• Naomi Wu, a third-year student in computer science and Asian American studies at Weinberg
• External publicity chair Megan Yaur (BS/MS ’22)

“There was never any doubt that Northwestern students would be able to put together creative and technically complex projects,” Guo said. “Our mission was to support these students, no matter their experience level, and encourage them to showcase their coding ability and creativity.”

Evaluated on the criteria of technical complexity, originality, design, utility, and presentation, teams developed projects within three tracks: life hacks, social good, and health. Eighteen Hackathon teams submitted a brief project demo and pitch video.

The Gift Whisperer, developed by third-year computer science students Julian Baldwin, Ryan Newkirk, and Andrew Pulver, earned the grand prize in the life hacks category and the crowd’s favorite award. The project applies language models to generate gift ideas based on a short personal description.

Larina Chen, a third-year computer science student; Kelly Mei, a third-year undergraduate in computer science at Weinberg; and Ebube Okonji, a third-year student studying computer engineering, earned the grand prize in the social good track for ACTivism, a Google Chrome extension that analyzes browsing history to suggests events and actionable information in support of causes relevant to the user.

Northwestern University Peer Chats, a peer support mental health care service that enables students to speak anonymously with a peer via video chat, voice call, or text any time of the day, was awarded the grand prize in the health category. The project was developed by Hanjune Lee, a third-year student in computer science at Weinberg, James Kim, a third-year student studying computer science, and second-year undergraduates in computer science Justin Dong and Steve Ewald.

Additional winning projects included:

• Best Design: Frigo by Julia Chu (computer science and communication studies, School of Communication), Paul Kim (computer science, McCormick), Sean Rhee (computer science, McCormick), David Yim (computer science, McCormick)
• Best Technology: Wing by Yvan Chu (computer science, McCormick), Annie Li (computer science), Davi Maciel Dias (computer science, McCormick), Rui Wen (computer science, Weinberg)
• Best Project Idea/Pitch: Recurring Venmo Request Scheduler by Aryan Jain (computer science, McCormick), Michael Luvin (computer science, McCormick), Ishaan Narain (mechanical engineering and computer science, McCormick), Patrick Pynadath (computer science and mathematics, Weinberg)

WildHacks 2022 project judges were:

• Nabil Alshurafa, assistant professor of preventive medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and (by courtesy) computer science at Northwestern Engineering
• Connor Bain, assistant professor of instruction at Northwestern Engineering
• Katherine Compton, assistant professor of instruction at Northwestern Engineering
• Branden Ghena, assistant professor of instruction at Northwestern Engineering
• Mike Raab, interim director of The Garage at Northwestern

Northwestern CS, the Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and The Garage sponsored the event along with external partners Citadel and Coca-Cola.

WildHacks 2023 is planned for winter quarter and organizers expect to open participation beyond Northwestern.