HackGT throws events for collegiate and high school students with the goal of allowing our participants to bring any of their ideas to life. From the most serious to the most hilarious, we empower our participants by cultivating a resource-rich and inspiring environment.
A “Hack” is the innovation and coordination of multiple technologies to form a creative and challenging proof of concept - be it through software or hardware. Hackathons are events where teams of students spend a weekend utilizing resources and support that we provide to bring their ideas to life. These projects range from mobile applications to drones to embedded hardware and more. Finally, the most important part of hackathons is that it provides the community with the opportunity to grow, create, and impact.
Horizons is an art+tech make-a-thon that encouraged participants to bring their most creative and quirky ideas to life by fiddling with the intersection of art and tech. Whether you’re an artist in disguise :art:, high-key music enthusiast :musical_note:, knitting aficionado :cat: , dance machine :carousel_horse:, or a puzzler :video_game: at heart, Horizons is THE event for you!
Ellie Morton
Director
Ehsan Asdar
Director
Julian Golombek
Director of Finance
Allison Ronan
Director of Communications
Alicia Chan
Director of Design
James Lu
Director of Operations
Joel Ye
Director of Technology
HackGT’s 6th annual installment of our marquee collegiate hackathon! In 2019, participants followed our mascot “Beardell” on a 36-hour adventure down the rabbit hole. As participants explored Wonderland they encountered magical workshops, created fantastical technology, and formed friendships to last a lifetime.
For Catalyst 2019, we re-wrote our event curriculum in collaboration with student organizations at Georgia Tech. At the event, we paired over 100 mentors with 200+ high school students from the Atlanta area. Students were able to pick from four curriculum tracks to explore throughout the day.
Horizons was HackGT’s first Art + Tech makeathon and a celebration of the arts community at Georgia Tech. At Horizons, participants were challenged to create projects integrating art and technology that related to the prompt “Tell me a story”.
HackGT’s third hardware hackathon! This year, we partnered with The Invention Studio and The Hive to provide tooling, materials, and mentorship at the event! Hackers just getting started could attend our beginner workshops, and we held more advanced workshops in robotics for experienced attendees.
Ryan Petschek
Director
Julian Golombek
Director
Jordan Madison
Director of Communications
Alicia Chan
Director of Design
Rahul Ajmera
Director of Finance
Jordan Harvey-Morgan
Director of Operations
Ellie Morton
Director of Operations
Kexin Zhang
Director of Technology
HackGT’s 5th annual installment of our marquee 1000 person, 36-hour collegiate hackathon! In 2018, we helped participants reach New Heights, but this year we wanted to try something different. Specifically, Dare to Venture with our participants into the unknown. Inspired by the lush greenery of the Pacific Northwest, we organized a myriad of workshops, fireside chats, and mini-events in an effort to empower participants to learn something new and have fun in the process.
For our second iteration of Catalyst, we hosted a day of STEAM exposure for more than 150 high school students from the Atlanta area. Students were able to pick from three curriculum tracks: design, development, and hardware. Throughout the day, participants explored their track with the help of specialized mentors, interactive workshops, and guided projects.
Andrew Dai
Director
Faizan Virani
Director
Lekha Surasani
Director of Finance, Director of Operations
Jordan Madison
Director of Communications
Michael Eden
Director of Technology
Connor Dautel
Director of Design
If there was one word to describe HackGT’s 2017, it would be base-building. By expanding our event catalog and improving the quality of our events, we focused on solidifying our brand as an organization that throws worthwhile events for our community.
HackGT’s 4th annual signature 36-hour hackathon! In 2016, we received tons of great feedback about our event, and this year, we wanted to take it to New Heights. Motivated by the desire to better the experience of our participants and sponsors, we focused on cultivating a fun, resource enriched environment. From ceramics painting to AI workshops, this event spanned the gamut of an amazing hackathon experience.
After listening to participant feedback, HackGT decided to complement our main HackGT event with a series of beginner workshops to introduce critical skills for application development. At the event, we offered a 5 hour hands-on, mentor-guided workshops for students with introductory coding experience.
A #spicy event centered around crazy ideas. Whether it’s a meme-based application or a random, fun project that you would love to bring to life, this is the place to be!
HackGT’s first ever day of Computer Science exposure for more than 200 underserved high school students in the Metro Atlanta Area. The day consisted of workshops in HTML, CSS, and Android Development in addition to mentor pairing that helped students learn new technologies. Ultimately, each student went home with at least 3 projects to call their own.
Amreeta Duttchoudhury
Director
Michael Ollukaren
Director
Faizan Virani
Director of Operations
Amy Liu
Director of Marketing
Michelle Chiu
Director of Technology
HackGT’s third year consisted of continuing the success of the events of the previous year.
Pavleen Thukral
Director
Shehmeer Jiwani
Director
Sidney Durant
Director of Operations
Pooja Vaidya
Director of Marketing
Richard Li
Director of Technology
HackGT’s second year was marked by the stepping back of the hackathon process and not only focusing on the main event, but on attendees preparation for running successful events as well.
HackGT’s second small-scale hackathon focused on the development of skills needed to create full-stack projects!
Pavleen Thukral
Director
Shehmeer Jiwani
Director
Sidney Durant
Director of Operations
Pooja Vaidya
Director of Marketing
Richard Li
Director of Technology
2014 marked the conception of HackGT the student organization, therefore bringing to life the notion of application and innovation at Georgia Tech.
HackGT’s first ever 36 hour hackathon! Founded on the motivation of making Georgia Tech students cool again, Pavleen and Shehmeer set out with the ambition of bringing the first ever hackathon to Georgia Tech turf. Strapped with grit, hardwork, and sacrifice, the original HackGT team not only brought together the organizations first hackathon, but inadvertently birthed the culture of innovation that we see today.