Joe Gutierrez Office of Strategic Communication (909) 537-5007 joeg@csusb.edu
Updated with hackathon winners.Written by Olabode Lawal/CSUSB Office of Strategic CommunicationPhotos by Corinne McCurdy/CSUSBThe Computer Science and Engineering Club at Cal State San Bernardino held its first Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Hackathon on Saturday, March 6, and concluded Sunday, March 3, at noon. The event was a competition between teams consisting of 3-5 people who were given 15 hours to hack enough code to demonstrate Sunday morning. Each team was judged by a panel of experts. Fifty-nine students registered and participated in the GCP hackathon in 11 groups. The team “Peace of Mind,” with team members Samuel Jacuinde, Montana Williams, Nicholas Thai, Colby Holloman and Daniel Martinez, took first place. Each team member was awarded a Google Home Mini. “The most fascinating part is that the participants I met claimed they were well rested as of Monday morning and had the best sleep of this quarter,” said Arusyak Hovhannesyan, the president of the CSE club. “The participants had a very positive experience and are becoming more motivated on learning of computer science and technology.” 'It was a very nice place to have it. I got to teach myself Python and html. I'm looking forward to doing it again, next year,” said Tyler Oviatt, one of the participants at the event. “It was really cool to have Google Cloud Platform; it got me to see what it’s like in the job field and prepare me to be a programmer.' Participant Andrew Beechko said, 'I was surprised and thrilled by the turn out of this event and by the fact that the whole thing went smoothly. I enjoyed the competitive and fast paced environment, which made this creative environment actually enjoyable instead of stressful.' Esdras Lopez, who also participated in the event, called it an “exhilarating experience.” “I am glad I went and experienced how one of these competitions work. As CSE 201 students, we still have a long way to go in terms of real-world applications of computer science. This experience made me realize I should teach myself another programming language besides C++,” Lopez said. The event also featured three judges from the School of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), Information Technology Services (ITS), and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Foothill Ssection. The hackathon was sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) foothill section, Google, CSUSB Associated Students Inc. (ASI), the university’s Computer Science and Engineering Club (CSE), as well as Information Technology Services (ITS). For more information, contact Arusyak Hovhannesyan at president.cse.csusb@gmail.com or Sagar Patel CSE Club Vice President at vicepresident.cse.csusb@gmail.com.