CSoI Web Production Assistant Joshua Branson attended a Hackathon, "HackIllinois," over the weekend. The Hackathon (sometimes called a Codefest) had many sponsors: Google, Microsoft, IBM, Apple, and Facebook, to name a few. Taking place in Champaign, Illinois, "HackIllinois" is an annual 36 hour event where college students from across the country create technical projects using company sponsors' API (Application Programming Interface). The Hackathon provided free food, sleeping mats, and transportation to and from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. According to the website: http://www.hackillinois.org/ , there were $9,995 in prizes to the best software and hardware hacks!

Joshua said, "Hackathons are a great place for students to not only learn about programming, but many companies send recruiters to hire new employees. Hackathons have really empowered me to be a better programmer, and would recommend it to anyone that wants to learn more about computer programming." At the event, Josh created his own HTML 5 game called "High Star." Check out his game demo here: http://jbranso.me/high-star/

Purdue University has a 36 hour Hackathon this weekend, March 6-8th , called "Hack the Anvil." For more info or to register follow this link: http://hacktheanvil.com/ .