UGA Community
The University of Georgia (UGA) has a strong computer science and STEM program and a strong community to go with it. The university is home to fifty-five technology clubs. These organizations bounce ideas off of each other, participate in events and workshops together, and build a strong foundation for students to succeed.
One of the best opportunities for the entire UGA STEM community to connect is at UGAHacks. The Major League Hacking (MLH) Member Event, now approaching its eighth iteration, allows participants from across the university and the region to connect, learn, build, and share.
That’s amongst the reasons why the UGAHacks 7 team fought so hard to make their event a reality. Having already postponed their hackathon once for COVID safety, they faced the prospect of a second year without an in-person hackathon that could serve as a community gathering point.
Undeterred, the team worked together closely to overcome challenges with marketing, sponsorship, university needs, and even football game dates. Though many of the organizers had never put on a physical event before, they were determined to make it happen.
One major challenge the team faced was ensuring COVID safety. Jeffery John, UGAHacks 7 lead organizer and MLH Top 50 2022 recipient, says, “while our team felt strongly that we should enforce the most comprehensive policies, at the time, we were forbidden from doing so due to venue policy.” However, the team worked closely with their administration to find a way to both respect the team's want for safety and the university policy, ultimately finding a way to enforce strong COVID guidelines and even offer Experiential Learning credit to attendees.
Despite these challenges, Aniyah Norman, UGAHacks 7 Logistics Director and MLH Top 50 2022 recipient, says the team “remained positive and committed to putting on an amazing event and maintained the positive connection between the organizing team in the process. Allowing our fellow organizers to share their worries, burdens, and stress, the team and I created an environment where we were like family, and we stuck together to put on an amazing hackathon.”
Jeffery says that following the event, “we finished the year having hosted a capstone team, cryptocurrency, capture the flag, experiential learning, eSports, Google Developer Group, and many more new initiatives, with a community still recovering from COVID-19 but that returned stronger than ever with our efforts.”
Today, the UGA tech community is as strong as ever and continues to enrich the greater Athens Tech community. With Aniya Norman at the helm of UGAHacks 8, the entire community will continue to grow and connect through the event.
UGA Community
The University of Georgia (UGA) has a strong computer science and STEM program and a strong community to go with it. The university is home to fifty-five technology clubs. These organizations bounce ideas off of each other, participate in events and workshops together, and build a strong foundation for students to succeed.
One of the best opportunities for the entire UGA STEM community to connect is at UGAHacks. The Major League Hacking (MLH) Member Event, now approaching its eighth iteration, allows participants from across the university and the region to connect, learn, build, and share.
That’s amongst the reasons why the UGAHacks 7 team fought so hard to make their event a reality. Having already postponed their hackathon once for COVID safety, they faced the prospect of a second year without an in-person hackathon that could serve as a community gathering point.
Undeterred, the team worked together closely to overcome challenges with marketing, sponsorship, university needs, and even football game dates. Though many of the organizers had never put on a physical event before, they were determined to make it happen.
One major challenge the team faced was ensuring COVID safety. Jeffery John, UGAHacks 7 lead organizer and MLH Top 50 2022 recipient, says, “while our team felt strongly that we should enforce the most comprehensive policies, at the time, we were forbidden from doing so due to venue policy.” However, the team worked closely with their administration to find a way to both respect the team's want for safety and the university policy, ultimately finding a way to enforce strong COVID guidelines and even offer Experiential Learning credit to attendees.
Despite these challenges, Aniyah Norman, UGAHacks 7 Logistics Director and MLH Top 50 2022 recipient, says the team “remained positive and committed to putting on an amazing event and maintained the positive connection between the organizing team in the process. Allowing our fellow organizers to share their worries, burdens, and stress, the team and I created an environment where we were like family, and we stuck together to put on an amazing hackathon.”
Jeffery says that following the event, “we finished the year having hosted a capstone team, cryptocurrency, capture the flag, experiential learning, eSports, Google Developer Group, and many more new initiatives, with a community still recovering from COVID-19 but that returned stronger than ever with our efforts.”
Today, the UGA tech community is as strong as ever and continues to enrich the greater Athens Tech community. With Aniya Norman at the helm of UGAHacks 8, the entire community will continue to grow and connect through the event.
