Being a goal-oriented type that always strives to be a winner, it’s hard at first to see the purpose of hackathons beyond competing for a prize.

Hackathons are often easily labeled ‘competitive’. The environment and crowd offered also influences people’s perceptions of it. It’s a hard jab of nervousness when you hear industrial hackers are right at your tail. This is emphasized when you get in an exclusive hackathon through admissions which leads you to knowing that whoever got in, must be really competent. Brushing that aside and distracting myself from those common misconceptions that I fall prey to quite easily, I uncovered a new revelatory experience that brought out a genuine reason as to why I should hack.

36 hours on a round desk with piles of food wrappers, cables and trash like sticker peels surpassed my expectations of how surprising it could be in terms of implementing ideas and code. From scrutinizing over subscription plans and management certificates to cloud computing dollars, to incompatibilities over code editors between the classic showdown of a OS X and Windows operating system, to the broad spectrum of virtual machines to Markov chains to streaming bytes into sound files and the trip down to memory lane with Office 365 APIs, Azure service, Java, Scala, JavaScript, and a pointy but slightly hurtful C# in the less understood peculiarities of Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio Community, Sublime Text 2 and Eclipse..

I had no idea what was going on in my first HackUMass Hackathon( neither how the fact came to being that the team name came after a Native American Indian tribe), and I liked how diversified and far fetched it went. I spent hours savoring each service and platform that made it a great insight in the universe of computing. It made a lot of difference because it gave me the confidence that I had advanced to deeper depths in the entire domain of computing and tech tools.

I revere knowledge with awe when I can use it to implement something. It provides a great sense of accomplishment when you are familiar with the little nooks and crannies of the tech world around you.

Another significant point is developing the persistence to explore and pursue the incomprehensible until it is understood. This requires experimentation with different paths that lead to better understanding. It dawned on me that I wouldn’t gain as much if I had struggled in one direction and especially placed hardcore emphasis on a finished project. You develop more respect for yourself and believe in your potential. If there is one good reason to hack, it is to experience and amuse myself in this process over and over again.

To be honest,

-I loved it.

And..

• you’d rather not see the programming table because [THIS REASON]

-In the end, our faces were no different than exhaustion personified

-you’d rather look at more swag from tech companies

-you’d rather look at pimped laptops

-or even a Fitbit tattoo

Ever since its humble birth in the 1975 Homebrew Computer Club, and especially since the mid to late 2000’s, the hackathon has been spreading tech culture across the nation. Hackathons are everywhere, their presence a small, Silicon Valley inspired spark that threatens to ignite a regional innovation explosion.

It took until 2014 for that spark to touch the University of Massachusetts: Amherst, in the form of the first ever HackUMass. The UMass chapter of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (or IEEE for short) decided upon throwing the first UMass Amherst hackathon, and a group of twelve ambitious students led by 2014 alum Andrew Souza stepped up to the plate.

When I asked Andrew about his experience leading the first HackUMass charge, he revealed his true colors as a gracious and deserving leader. “This was a team effort, first and foremost”, Souza said. “We all collapsed in exhaustion at the end of that 24 hours.”

HackUMass started as an embedded systems hackathon, drawing around 100 participants. Crammed into the somewhat small but incredibly well-stocked M5 lab(/makerspace/home away from home for UMass’ crazy and brilliant engineers), the 2014 HackUMass produced projects ranging from a tool to make any whiteboard a “smart” board to the reanimation of an old robotic arm donated to the M5 lab in the early 80’s. It was a rousing success.

It was two members of the team that reanimated the aforementioned robotic arm that led the charge for HackUMass 2. The 2015 HackUMass team saw the immense success of HackUMass 1, and wanted to make it bigger- 5 times bigger. The team set their total participant target at a lofty 500 hackers.

Equipped with lessons learned from participating in the previous HackUMass, Mikayla Shtilman-Minkin assumed responsibility for the creation of the next grand iteration. “Planning (HackUMass 2) was extremely stressful, but definitely worth it”, Shtilman-Minkin shared with me. “It was a great opportunity as an organizer, and it was a great way to bring interdisciplinary people from all over UMass together and put UMass hacking on the map.”

After months of planning and preparation, HackUMass 2 took place from April 11–12 in the lovely spring of 2015. It was a smash hit- hundreds of collegiate showed up from across the U.S., representing schools like R.P.I. and Northeastern. The food was consumed almost as fast as the UMass Dining staff could bus it out. The Red Bull flowed like water. And there was some serious hacking.

When the proverbial dust settled, there stood several victors. There was Surround, a music app that clues users in to what music is hot in their area, according to what other users nearby like. There was RoboCop, the silent app that alerts police in hairy situations by the way of an automated phone call. There was PowerGlove 2.0, an empowering piece of software that charts the flexibility of hand and finger movements for those with arthritis. There was also a revolutionary piece of alarm clock technology that awoke users with cat pictures accompanied by a meowing serenade.

Part of the appeal of hackathons is precisely this balancing between serious and fun, between competitive and cooperative, between productive and reckless. It’s something both of the previous HackUMass leaders touched upon during our talks. Andrew Sousa loved that the first HackUMass gave students a chance to “flex their technical muscles for recruiters”, while simultaneously embracing that HackUMass was the students’ chance to “cut out time to do whatever they want.” Michaela Shtilman-Minkin saw an event that had something to offer for everyone. “I saw a kid learn Python in a weekend,” she said. “Where else do you get the opportunity to do something like that?”

Check out hackumass.com to register today for HackUMass 3! From October 23–25. Registration is limited.

The world of technology never ceases to amaze us.

Between self-driving automobiles, spacecrafts that can land and take off again, and the ever increasing variety of things that can access the internet, it seems we can’t go a single week without our world being rocked by an incredible piece of new technology. Out of this era of insane progress, the hackathon was born.

Many of you are likely to be intimately acquainted with hackathons and the rest of tech culture, but for those of you who aren’t, you’re not alone. Our trusted ally Google (quoting our equally dependable companion Wikipedia) tells us that hackathons are “events in which computer programmers and others involved in software development and hardware development, including graphic designers, interface designers and project managers, collaborate intensively on software projects.” This is, of course, the sort of robotic definition that one would expect from an encyclopedia.

What a hackathon really is is a few hundred strangers holed up in a building, fueled by caffeinated beverages and a drive to completion, “hacking” feverishly at the projects that they always find themselves putting off. It’s a chance for people with great talents to get together and eliminate all of the outside noise that pulls them from their latest great idea, a brief respite from the rest of the world in the name of creation. It’s also sweaty, smelly (no showers!) and exhausting.

As a non-STEM major, I stumbled upon this tech world sort of accidentally. I’ve met some amazing people here at the University of Massachusetts: Amherst, people with an unquenchable thirst to make cool things happen. As a volunteer at last year’s HackUMass, I saw hundreds of incredibly talented individuals come together and build things ranging from a robotic arm controlled by a special glove to a virtual reality lawnmower simulator. The energy was palpable. The results, simply extraordinary.

HackUMass is coming back for a third round this October, and we’re working nonstop to create an experience even more incredible than the last. We hope to give people a platform to turn their ideas into reality, a chance to learn new skills and build new things, and the opportunity to meet people and companies. But the biggest hope we have is the same hope that drives contestants to stay awake for 36 hours, glued to their screens and fiddling with their hardware. It’s the hope that maybe, just maybe, something will happen here that will change the world.

What the hell is a Hackathon? Do I legitimately hack into things or people’s privacy? Will I become a black hat? Is there a prerequisite of knowledge of coding/hardware? Will I fit in? What will i build? Am I smart enough for this? What do I need? How will I find a team? How many changes in clothes should I bring? Do I really smell when I don’t shower for a while?

HackBeanpot 2015 was only two more days away, and already my mind was buzzing with excitement…along with anxiety. I heard so many positive things about Hackathons in general:

However they had failed to really express WHAT a hackathon really was, and that was the source of my anxiety.

I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know what I would do, what type of people I’d run into, if I would fit in, so on and so forth.

I’d tell my friends that I’d be going to a Hackathon and the most would ask me what it was and I didn’t know how to answer them. Some asked me if I was actually going to hack into people’s computers. It was difficult to explain because I didn’t fully understand it in the first place.

In reality, I knew as much about it as they did.

But now that HackBeanpot 2015 is over (sad face) and I’m developing cabin fever from the never ending winter plague in New England, I’m determined to enlighten those who have never gone to a Hackathon, and hopefully change your indecisive minds so that you will make an effort to go experience one of the many best times of your lives. For me, my experience at HackBeanpot 2015 was one of the best times of my life.

As far as I understand, a hackathon is an event where people of all backgrounds, experience and tech savviness come together in a large area to collaborate with people, expand on ideas, and create some type of end project. Some hackathons are software-based, so usually phone or website applications are made. Others are hardware-based, so Arduinos and breadboards will be seen a lot. But hackathons are not exclusively one or the other.

At the end of the prescribed time, those demos and projects are judged. Some teams will win prizes, some will not. But in the end, everyone will (in one way or another) gain some experience in applying code, digital design, or circuitry.

In most cases, these events go on for over 48 hours, though it depends on the Hackathon. HackBeanpot 2015 started registration at 6:00pm on Friday, went on through Saturday, and ended around 4:00pm Sunday afternoon. I stayed up on both Friday and Saturday until around 6:00am and woke up at 12:00pm Saturday, and at 9:30am Sunday.

It’s a fair amount of time to commit to, however usually much of the waking hours are either spent eating or working on projects. From my perspective, when you are at a hackathon, you and your fellow ‘hackers’ are putting yourselves in an atmosphere of innovation, inspiration, ideas, and technology, attempting to mimic and learn from others, collaborate with team members and create something awesome that people will hopefully like or at least find humorous…as long as you intended it to be funny.

I guess the name can be misleading for people who have never heard or talked about it before, but NO, Hackathons DO NOT promote stealing or phishing or killing or any anti-societal things. Don’t get stuck on the concept of ‘Hack’. You don’t do anything related to hurting or violating other people (unless you don’t bring deodorant or body spray or a clean change of clothes for the overnight stay). In fact, there isn’t anything negative about a hackathon. You’re just making really cool stuff with code or circuits alongside really cool people. There is no black hat magic, nor any Anonymous recruitment. This is your way to get into the fast track of learning how to code or put circuits together and how to work in a cohesive team!

There is no prerequisite of knowledge of coding or hardware, but at least be willing to learn and be taught and smell after many hours of sitting, eating, sleeping, and hacking. By the time the event is over, you will have had a basic idea of how things you’ve seen or made work. Since there is no prerequisite of knowledge, don’t feel like you can’t go to a Hackathon — go forth and hack!

I didn’t know much about coding. I only knew a lackluster amount of Java, JavaScript, and a moderate amount of HTML and CSS. And by a lackluster amount I really just mean I could from memory write:

And in terms of HTML and CSS, I will admit, by the time I went to the hackathon I had a couple months of knowledge of front end website development using an emulated server on my computer.

My knowledge of everything code was quite basic. I was teaching myself through trial and error and just looking up (and copying and pasting) code from websites like w3schools.com, stackoverflow.com, YouTube, and other random forms.

But actually, looking up information and asking mentors and fellow Hackathon goers for help in order to make stuff work is exactly how I got to experience so much from the hackathon, besides being around amazingly smart and inspirational hackers a.k.a coders.

Teams usually come in size of 4 members, though that is not a minimum nor maximum requirement; it just works out to have a group of generally that size. But coming into the event as someone without much experience, my goal was to go around and test the waters. A great piece of advice I heard was that in order for you to find a team, you will have to go around to many pockets of people and talk and be friendly.

If you’re not willing to get out of your comfort zone and meet people and be willing to ask to join, help, or look on, you will have difficulty finding a team to work with.

One great opportunity the organizers of HackBeanpot 2015 gave people who didn’t know what to do was that they rounded up all the people not in groups, and gave us an opportunity to talk, meet, and eventually team up with people. Had it not been for that allotted time to meet others, I would not have found the amazing and smart teammates I found.

It’s especially important to be open to those around you in the hackathon. You don’t know how much others know, nor how much you even know, and if you’re coming in as someone without much experience, you will want to seek out people you can learn from and people you can help out.

In my case, I didn’t expect to use Photoshop to help edit .png files of Pokemon sprites (pixel by pixel) that another teammate had. Later on I even helped out by performing grunt work like plugging in data into .json and python files that my teammates would apply to the code they were typing up. Essentially, I was learning how to code in python and write files in json! Plus I learned how to do these things called Git Pulls and Pushes, which offers a reliable and quick way to send file updates to your teammates — I’d compare it to Google Drive but it’s way cooler and more complex than that.

This ability to contribute to a team that had an idea and tried to make it a reality was what made my Hackathon so enjoyable and memorable.

Plus, actually helping to create a working website application was more than enough inspiration for me to want to go to more Hackathons; you can find the website link here (but it’s actually Reddit — Upvote please!) : http://redd.it/2v98i3

Trust those around you who express a great deal of excitement around Hackathons. These events which occur nearly every month in nearly every part of the world are popular for a reason; the ability to learn in a semi-competitive atmosphere with smart, friendly people, and the ability to create something that you can confidently say, ‘I helped to make’, should be more than enough reason to give events like these a chance.

Originally published at medium.com on February 16, 2015.