By Rob Davis
The brunch is over, our stomachs are
full, and the projects have been presented. The Makin Bacon Hackathon II was
proudly hosted Saturday, August 10th by Emphasys Software in Coral Gables. This
was our second event supporting the South Florida tech scene and we are happy
to report both an increase in attendance as well as quality of projects. Six
teams competed for prizes and better yet, bragging rights.
Following the trend set in April, we wanted to host an event focused on supporting the growing technology community of Miami. No strings attached, no box to confine builders, just trying something new and different. As a bacon themed “B.Y.O. API” (Bring Your Own API) event, we invited participants to bring their favorite APIs and/or share knowledge of already mastered ones. Our featured API was Twilio, which lets you use standard web languages to build voice, VoIP and SMS applications via a web API. Using Google hangout, Keith Casey Jr., Twilio’s senior evangelist, walked participants through getting set up and using phone numbers. At one point, a triggered conference call caused sporadic harmonies of varying ringtones to sound off throughout the room as hilarity ensued. From there, we pushed forward to the main event; 12 hours of hacking, bootstrapping, and coding our dreams into reality.
With a total of six teams presenting,
only three would walk away victorious. Judges included Emphasys Software’s
Chris Lema, Max Cacchione of the EDC of Boca Raton, and Todd Schwarzfarb of Wirestreak.com.
Finally, at 7:45pm the top three projects were announced to a tense and excited
audience. The winning project was the “Steam Decider,” created by Alan Goldman (pictured),
which makes picking the next game to play from your Steam library easier. An algorithm
calculates which game you are most likely to enjoy based on several factors,
including friends’ recommendations and previous time spent playing. For placing
first, Alan was rewarded with a year of Github medium plan, one year of
RightSpace2meet membership, a Valve Track Jacket and Portal 2 Hardcover Book.
Following in second place, returning Makin Bacon contestant Alfonso Guerra, and his teammate Ali Khoshnevis presented WeRx Employer. Their project’s focus was to create an app for employers to easily see prescription price comparisons based on their insurance plan. WeRx was very well researched, making it difficult for the judges to deliberate. Ali and Alfonso both received one year of Github medium plan, six months of RightSpace2meet membership, a Counter Strike promo tee as well as Aperture hats, courtesy of Valve games.
Last but not least, Adrian Cardenas and Adam Culp presented the Sunshine PHP website, a conference website for the South Florida PHP User group that Adam organizes. They built the site using twitter bootstrap, SendGrid’s API for email distribution, and plan to integrate Eventbrite and similar social features in the weeks to come. Adam also announced they will open source the code as well, so other can reuse or repurpose as they see fit. As the third place team, Adrian and Adam received 1 year of GitHub Micro Plan, 3 months of membership to RightSpace2meet and the Valve prize pack including Counter Strike Tees and an Aperture mug. Makin Bacon attendees always walk away with something; Valve lanyards, tees from Twilio, and stickers and swag from Github were distributed post event, so no hand went home empty.
As we look back, the Makin Bacon
Hackathon II was double the bacon and triple the fun as the first. New faces
and projects rounded out the group, making it a great opportunity to practice
and learn from others. A very special thanks to Twilio, Keith, GitHub, the EDC
of Boca Raton, RightSpace2meet, Valve, South Florida Technology Alliance,
GeekyBeach, SherlockTech Staffing, IncubateMiami, and RedBull for keeping us
awake. Emphasys Software is proud to continue supporting Miami and the tech
community’s growth, and as the only brunch themed hackathon in South Florida,
we promise to keep the bacon coming.
Stay tuned for announcements of future hackathons by following us on Twitter
(@emphasys) or liking us on Facebook (EmphasysSoftware).