penn station NJ Transit’s new policy appears to be targeted at removal of homeless community
Digital Humanities Brian Kernighan discusses the role of digital humanities
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BASEBALL Rutgers takes 1 of 3 in opening series at
No. 17 Miami
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Annual 24-hour hackathon draws more than 600 Rutgers students Nikhilesh De correspondent
Participants and spectators gathered in the Cook Student Center on Feb. 18 for the third annual HackHers event. The 24-hour hackathon focuses on women in computer science. Raj Vaidya
More than 600 students visited the Cook Student Center between Feb. 18 and 19 for the third annual HackHers coding and development competition. HackHers is a 24-hour hackathon primarily centered around women, said School of Arts and Sciences senior Constantin Scoullis. A hackathon is a 24 to 36-hour event where people try to build an app or a similar technology-related project. Often, sponsors or recruiters are present and prizes are distributed at the end. “HackHers is a woman-centered hackathon, so we mostly cater to women or people who identify as female in order to introduce them to technology, to coding, to tech culture,” the HackHers marketing lead said. “The point of a hackathon is to get (participants) to learn and build.”
HackHers began the competition early Saturday morning with breakfast and the opportunity to speak with recruiters at the event, she said. After organizers hosted an opening ceremony introducing the event’s sponsors and prizes, the competition began. Students began coding after the ceremony ended, but had the opportunity to participate in workshops and fun activities throughout the day and night, Scoullis said. “From the time hacking begins to the time hacking ends, there’s workshops to help (hackers) learn new technologies,” she said. “That’s generally the sequence until hacking ends. We try to do things differently every year.” Beginners are welcome at the event, she said. School of Arts and Sciences junior Kelly Tran, who is just entering the computer science field, said she attended HackHers to gain some
experience. She had never participated in a hackathon before, and did not want to start with a larger event like HackRU. “I wanted an environment that was less intimidating than HackRU, so HackHers, which is very woman-centric, is very easy to adjust to,” she said. “I think it’s less intimidating than a bigger hackathon. There’s a lot of familiar faces here and it’s very welcoming.” Tran said her goal was to develop her skills through the weekend. “I’m just trying to learn everything I can,” she said. Scoullis said many of the workshops hosted through the weekend were specifically designed for beginners. A representative from the National Center for Women and Information Technology hosted a workshop during the first afternoon See hackathon on Page 4
U. students take part in conference at Harvard Ryan Stiesi contributing writer
Two Rutgers students and one administrator participated in the National Campaign for Political and Civic Engagement conference at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics. The event began on Feb. 3 at 6 p.m. and lasted until Feb. 5 at 12 a.m. Over 70 undergraduate students from 28 different universities came together to discuss the divisiveness of national politics, and created plans to take on this issue. Conferences have been held annually since 2003, with goals of working collaboratively on projects, fostering interest in politics, providing civic education and assisting students interested in public service careers. Brendan Keating, the program coordinator of the Youth Political Participation Program (YPPP) at the Eagleton Institute of Politics, said that having the chance to interact with students from all different areas and backgrounds, from big schools like the University of Texas at Austin, or a small school in Pittsburgh like Allegheny College, was a great learning experience for the students. “With people that were obviously on different sides of the aisle, they were able to learn stuff from each
other and realize the point is not how we get there ... we’re going to differ on our views of how we get there, but if the point is making things better for everybody in the country, that’s something that we all agree on,” Keating said. Julia Stadlinger, a junior in the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, was one of the two students invited to attend. She was selected through Eagleton to attend the conference because of her previous work with the Darien Civic Engagement Project and RU Voting, Stadlinger said. The weekend-long event consisted of town hall-style discussions on significant issues, followed by breakout groups where students created plans to approach those issues. “We talked about what is going on, (and) what is stopping our country from going in the right direction. We shared all of those ideas and then we got it down to three core issues, one of which was citizenship which had to do with civic engagement, but also just people’s feelings of political efficacy, another one was structural inequality, and another one was media and the whole idea of fake news,” Stadlinger said. Later the students split up into breakout groups based on the three issues. There was a group on citizenship, media and a structural
One administrator and two Rutgers students travelled to Harvard on Feb. 3 to participate in the National Campaign for Civic Engagement conference. They spent three days discussing solutions to major political issues with students from 28 different universities. Google maps inequality group. Stadlinger was in the latter. “Basically what they were saying (when broken up into groups) was how can we address these issues in a way that will bring our country together,” Stadlinger said. Monica Beshay, a sophomore in the School of Arts and Sciences, was the other student from Rutgers selected to attend the conference. “I really enjoyed going to (the) National Campaign Conference at Harvard. I learned that as college students there are so many of us trying to make a positive impact
in our own universities. It was nice seeing other students from around the country,” Beshay said via email. Beshay said that she took many things away from the event that she finds applicable to the Rutgers student body and community in general, including consuming different types of media, fact-checking sources, the importance of civic engagement for the millennial generation and working to understand other people’s perspectives. “We need to learn about the other side. Despite the fact that people
VOLUME 149, ISSUE 12 • University ... 3 • opinions ... 6 • tech ... 8 • Diversions ... 9 • SPORTS ... BACK
have different political beliefs from you, does not mean you do not listen to their argument and point of view. We need to acknowledge the fact that one way is not always the best way at all times,” Beshay said. Being able to come together and discuss past experiences with students from different schools and backgrounds and how students can take what we learned back to their universities was a ver y positive experience, Stadlinger said. See conference on Page 4