BrickHack Hackathon, 2016
Dates/Location
- Saturday, March 5th and Sunday, March 6th, 2016
- Rochester Institute of Technology
- 1 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5603
- Google Maps: Rochester Institute of Technology
- Air to Greater Rochester International Airport (ROC)
Event Description
BrickHack is an annual hackathon event at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where students from around the country flock to RIT for a weekend of programming and contest. They create things, solve practical problems, compete for prizes, and interact with sponsors. As of January 28th, 2016, there are over 500 people confirmed and registered to attend. There is still another month of registration.
Google's definition of a hackathon: An event, typically lasting several days, in which a large number of people meet to engage in collaborative computer programming.
Why attend this event? RIT is a school known for its participation in open source and is one of the only schools in the country to have a Free and Open Source Software minor. At this event, there are possibly more than five hundred students from around the country who are passionate and interested in programming or development. This event also has an open source category, giving students a chance to either become more exposed to open source software or share their enthusiasm with others. This is a great opportunity for Fedora to make an impact at a university level, following along with the University Involvement Initiative set forth by the Fedora Council.
Justin W. Flory is a student at RIT and can help support the event as a locale.
Event Owners
Fedora Representatives
- Justin W. Flory (local)
- Charles Profitt (local)
- Remy DeCausemaker
- Ralph Bean (local, attending part of event)
- Michael DePaulo
Deadline to confirm participation: 2016-02-18
Event Schedule
The most current revision of the schedule can be found on the BrickHack website.
March 5 - Saturday
- 10:30am - 2:00pm: Registration / Check-in
- 11:15am: Lunch
- 12:00pm: Opening Ceremony
- 1:00pm: Hacking begins
- 1:00pm - 5:00pm: Workshops
- 6:00pm: Dinner
- 8:00pm: Sushi Snack
- 11:00pm: MLH Cup Stacking
March 6 - Sunday
- 1:00am: Cookies
- 1:00am - 3:00am: HackerRank Code Challenge
- 8:00am: Breakfast
- 11:30am: Lunch
- 12:30pm: Submissions due
- 1:30pm - 2:30pm: Judging
- 3:00pm: Move to Closing Ceremony venue
- 3:30pm - 5:00pm: Closing Ceremony
Ideas / Brainstorming
- Sponsorship slots run at $500 or $1000 slots, also higher tiers
- Negotiated price: $1,200 for a table, branding on BrickHack merchandise, and permission to bring BrickHack mentors (to help troubleshoot and give advice on coding)
- Part of deal includes being the sponsor of the Open Source category at the event
- Mentors welcome and encouraged (if you can code, there are ways for you to help represent Fedora as a knowledgeable programmer)
- We need an event box
- Swag to give out: pens, stickers, media?
- Ideas to specifically appeal to college students to open source / Linux / Fedora?
Negotiated Deal
After negotiating with the BrickHack organization committee, we were able to negotiate a sponsorship deal of $1,200 that includes all of the following:
- Fedora branding on BrickHack merchandise
- Dedicated table for Fedora
- Permission to bring mentors for helping students programming on their projects
- Official sponsor of Open Source category, which allows us to define the scope of a part of the hackathon (i.e. coding contest) and award prize(s) to winners
Prize Pool
As the sponsor of the Open Source category, Fedora is responsible for providing prizes to category winners. There is a badge that will be awarded to the FAS accounts of category winners. However, physical prizes are an important aspect to draw participants into going into the Open Source category. In the Trac ticket, there was some brainstorming for a potential list of prizes.
Bold items represent items that are either purchased or already acquired.
| Prize Item | Cost | Vendor | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bluehost: 1 year of VPS hosting | $0 | bluehost.com | Delivered as redeemable code (Courtesy of jsmith!) |
| Bluehost: 1 year of Cloud Sites hosting | $0 | bluehost.com | Delivered as redeemable code (Courtesy of jsmith!) |
| Bluehost: 1 year of Cloud Sites hosting | $0 | bluehost.com | Delivered as redeemable code (Courtesy of jsmith!) |
| Raspberry Pi 2 Model B | $35 per unit | element14.com | It was noted last year, a big sponsor was handing out a limited supply of Pis for free… |
| Raspberry Pi Zero | $5 per unit | microcenter.com | Very low availability, may not be possible |
| MakeyMakey kit | $50 per unit | makeymakey.com | |
| Signed copy of The Open Organization from Jim Whitehurst | $TBD | Red Hat | To be investigated by decause |
Important Deadlines
- 2016-02-07: Final deadline for sponsorships (can be flexible…)
- 2016-02-17: Logo use authorized
- 2016-02-27: Rules / requirements / prizes for Open Source category due (decause to fill out sponsor form)
Event Budget
| Item | Cost | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Sponsorship | $1,200 | Trac Ticket, Sponsorship Info |
| Shipping costs | $26.94 + ? | Event Banner, Event Box |
| Prize funds | $250 | Prizes awarded to winning participants of Open Source category |
| Swag, media, flyers | $0 | Using already available resources (part of shipping costs) |
| Travel subsidies | $0 | Not applicable for this event |
Travel Subsidy Requests
Each attendee requesting travel subsidies for the event should be listed here including the information requested in Sponsoring Event Attendees.
- Not applicable for BrickHack 2016
Event Report
N/A