SFHacks 2024, a hackathon hosted by San Francisco State University’s Association for Computing Machinery, took place at SFSU from April 5 – 7. In addition to the hackathon with a variety of tracks and themes ranging from sustainability to AI, there were also a variety of technical workshops for students to participate in, as well as panels for Women in Tech, People of Color, and alumni speakers. This was a wonderful opportunity for students to test their skills and network with like-minded people. Four teams organized by the Skyline Computer Science Club attended, and two other Skyline students joined separately.
Computer science major Jayan Pintor shared, “I partnered up with Lance and was able to learn Tailwind CSS and Next.js, along with incorporating APIs from Yelp, Google Maps, and OpenAI into our project.” You can check out more about their projects on the SFHacks website.
Lance Ruiz added, “SFHacks was another great opportunity for me to broaden my software engineering experience, but most importantly, the event served as a ground-breaking platform in being able to share my passion for the big world of CS with others from the Skyline College community.” Lance and Jayan’s duo team focused on the AI track, utilizing the Coze technology platform, as well as the challenge of tackling city life in San Francisco, incorporating a wide range of technologies.
It was an exhausting and intense three-day event — students worked around the clock and even spent Saturday night there. Tyler Kuwada reflected on his experience, saying, “SFHacks was a tiring but fun experience. I’m glad I was able to test my coding abilities with my friends in that type of environment. My biggest takeaway was that even though I have a lot of experience as club president and with my own projects, I still have a lot to learn.”
Amapola Garcia participated in her second hackathon of the year at SFHacks. She shared, “It was a great experience to collaborate with others and come up with an idea. There was a mixture of all types of students and professionals attending SF hacks.” In the future, Amapola hopes to learn and utilize Next.js and React for her next project. She expressed, “Overall, it was a fun experience, and I hope to attend more hackathons!”
Eden Huang, a data science major, attended the hackathon and was challenged to learn backend development. He explained, “Specifically, for our project’s frontend, we needed to familiarize ourselves with Node.js — a programming platform; Django for the backend; and MongoDB for the database.” Eden believes that attending hackathons is beneficial for data science students, stating, “Firstly, because it provides an opportunity to learn how websites are designed and built for data collection. Secondly, it allows you to connect with individuals who are or will be working in the technology industry.”
Overall, SFHacks 2024 was an extraordinary learning and networking experience for Skyline students. It is also great preparation for the first SMCCD Hackathon coming up on April 22 – 29. The Skyline Computer Science Club, along with the CSM Computer Science Club, are collaborating to organize and host it. This event is open to students of all experience levels from Skyline College, College of San Mateo, and Cañada College, as the event aims to be a fully accommodating experience for any students interested in coding and data science. Register for the hackathon for engaging problem-solving and programming with students from across the district!
