Three day ‘hackathon’ at San Jose State — golden minds with great ideas

Posted by the San Jose Mercury News April 8, 2012.

By Brandon Bailey

Those clumps of students hunkered down in a San Jose State cafeteria this weekend, staring at laptop screens from behind rows of coffee and soda cups, weren’t just cramming for finals.

Many of them were writing code and testing programs, hoping to create the next Facebook or some other killer app, during a three-day “hackathon” organized by students and sponsored by a local tech startup, SendHub.

“The idea was to get people who are interested in starting a business” to come together at an event where people with ideas can work with other people who have different skills, said organizer SoonKhen OwYong, 23, who graduated in December from SJSU with a degree in management information systems.

Students in engineering, computer science, business and other disciplines — many of whom had not met before Friday night — formed teams that competed to develop the best online game, service or application they could build in 48 hours.

Team members were allowed to go home and grab a few hours of sleep each night, but many set up camp at tables in the university’s Dining Commons, where the event was held.

One group worked on an idea for an online service that would help students share or lend textbooks they were no longer using. Another was busy with a smartphone app that would let friends exchange pictures of clothing in their closets and share ideas for new fashion ensembles.

“I just feel like this is the next big gold rush,” said business major Justin Lord, 24, referring to the explosion of online games and apps that has evolved into a booming industry in Silicon Valley.

Lord, who hopes to start his own company, teamed up with computer science major Nam Phan to work on Lord’s idea for an online basketball game that might be played on Android or Kindle devices. The game’s opening display includes a moving line of text that could be given over to advertisers’ messages.

SendHub cofounder John Fallone said the relatively new Mountain View startup wanted to sponsor the event as a way to raise the company’s profile and build ties with local schools, student programmers and would-be entrepreneurs.

The company put up the money for expenses and some modest prizes, including $300 for the best overall application created during the hackathon. It also offered a new iPad for the best project that incorporated SendHub’s own technology, which lets businesses and other groups send text messages to groups of people.

SendHub connected with OwYong through the university’s Entrepreneurial Society, a campus organization that supports and encourages students who dream of starting their own companies. Many of the hackathon participants said they share that dream.

Emeka Nwadibia, who just graduated in December with a degree in finance, is a 23-year-old who said he’s wanted to start his own business since he was a high school student in Stockton. He’s dabbled in concert promotion and, with SJSU computer engineering student Minh Nguyen, recently launched an online service called Entusic.com, which helps organize public gatherings and events.

Nwadibia was on the team working on the fashion app. A few feet away, business student Jannice Tu was working on a marketing plan for the online book exchange, while teammates led by business administration major Klarence OuYang wrote code and tested various features.

“Right now, I’m on Facebook contacting everyone I know,” to gather information on how people might use the book service and what features they would like to see, Tu explained.

While some students came to the hackathon with ideas, others brought their skills and decided which team to join after listening to initial presentations on Friday night. Their final presentation was expected to include a basic business and marketing plan as well as a demonstration of the software. Judges from SendHub asked questions and offered helpful suggestions.

It’s a common model for “hackathons” and startup events. Several students said they had participated in similar events around the Bay Area, but most said this was their first at San Jose State.

“We don’t have enough events like this,” said OwYong, who added that the real test is not just who had the best idea. Instead, he said the challenge is for students to learn to work together. “It’s not the idea; it’s about how they are able to execute it.”

In the end, the judges awarded first prize to an idea for online cloud storage devised by 18-year-old software engineering student Amru Eliwat, who had to teach himself a new programming language over the weekend after one of his teammates dropped out.

Contact Brandon Bailey at 408-920-5022; follow him at Twitter.com/BrandonBailey.