Yes, you read that right
We are thrilled to annouce we will be hosting our first hackathon next month! A live event where blood, sweat, tears and efficient code will be the protagonists of a 4 hours long session. HPC will be the focus of your efforts, so make sure to be knowledgeable in both C language and mpi.
The event will be held in Rome, room 3 of Sapienza's building in Via De Lollis, on the 21st on February (more on how to participate later). You can participate both as individuals or as teams of up to two people (otherwise known as pairs), and will face two problem solving challenges where speed and efficiency will reign. You will be able to see a live leaderboard as you progress through the event, that will take 4 hours in total (14 - 18). Our team will be available to answer your questions and help you through the hackathon.
What is a hackathon anyway?
No, really, what does this fancy word even mean? Get ready to taste one of my best dishes: some juicy trivia with a side of crunchy historical facts.
The word "hackathon" is a portmanteau (a blend of two words' meanings and sounds, +1 weird words learned today) of the words "hack" and "marathon", where "hack" is used in the sense of exploratory programming. The essence of these types of events is to solve a problem in a free and creative way, in a certain amount of time, while eating pizza and drinking your radioactive energy drink of choice.
OpenBSD's apparent first use of the term referred to a cryptographic development event held in Calgary on June 4th, 1999, where ten developers came together to avoid legal problems caused due to export regulations of cryptographic software from the United States.
The majority of these events last anywhere from 24 to 72 hours, but we computer scientists already have a reputation for not washing, we wouldn't want to get banned from university labs forever, even though this reputation is completely false and based on offensive stereotypes. Our hackathon will only last 4 hours. Enough time to go home and take a shower. Just saying.
It's a date then
We will publish a Google form to register at the event and grant yourselves a seat in our lab, but until then save the date on your calendar. We'll keep you updated here and on our Instagram, so make sure to follow us.
See you next month, happy coding plums!
