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HackTX is a 24-hour annual
Freetail Hackers
a Computer Science student organization at
HackTX started in 2012, when student members of the Hacker Lounge and Technology Entrepreneurship Society wanted to host a hackathon that would gather students and companies from the Austin, TX community. Students of all backgrounds are encouraged to participate, regardless of experience level or major of study.
To cover costs of the event, HackTX organizers raise capital from sponsoring companies. Companies are provided opportunities to interact with student hackers in the forms of mentoring and recruiting.
HackTX begins with a keynote address to all participants and a demonstration of sponsor APIs. Participants then begin building their projects, or 'hacking'. Projects may be software based, hardware based, or a combination of the two.
Participants are encouraged to work in teams of 3 to 5 members. After 24 hours, participants submit their projects for judgement.
The first HackTX was created by the Technology Entrepreneurship Society and Hacker Lounge of the University of Texas, Austin and held in the university's Student Activity Center, October 19–20, 2012. It attracted about 300 attendees.
The university Founder of Capital Factory and veteran Austin tech investor, Josh Baer, commented that this was the largest hackathon he had seen in Austin.
The first place winners, Lynx Labs, developed music visualization software using a Microsoft 
The second HackTX was held on the 
Whistlehero
"Guitar hero for whistling. This app was built completely in HTML and JavaScript. Comments were made about the potential of the app being used to not only fine-tune whistling skills, but to learn the skill itself."
Relevant XKCD
"Not only wa
Relevant XKCD
a funny presentation but the team has some serious potential as a search engine technology – fuzzy searching – searching when exact results are not known." Alert Meet "Alert Meet aims to solve the room reservation problem found in libraries and co-working spaces. Steve Lyons used a series of motion detectors to let users know when reserved rooms were in fact empty and available."
HackTX 2023 was held on the
Relevant XKCD
* {{Official website, http://hacktx.com Hacker culture Software development events University of Texas at Austin Recurring events established in 2012 Culture of Austin, Texas 2012 establishments in Texas Hackathons
hackathon
A hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest, datathon or codefest; a portmanteau of '' hacking'' and ''marathon'') is an event where people engage in rapid and collaborative engineering over a relatively short period of time such as 24 or 48 h ...
hosted bFreetail Hackers
a Computer Science student organization at
The University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...
.
HackTX is open to all college students and held on the University of Texas at Austin's campus.
History
HackTX started in 2012, when student members of the Hacker Lounge and Technology Entrepreneurship Society wanted to host a hackathon that would gather students and companies from the Austin, TX community. Students of all backgrounds are encouraged to participate, regardless of experience level or major of study.
To cover costs of the event, HackTX organizers raise capital from sponsoring companies. Companies are provided opportunities to interact with student hackers in the forms of mentoring and recruiting.
HackTX begins with a keynote address to all participants and a demonstration of sponsor APIs. Participants then begin building their projects, or 'hacking'. Projects may be software based, hardware based, or a combination of the two.
Participants are encouraged to work in teams of 3 to 5 members. After 24 hours, participants submit their projects for judgement.
HackTX winners
HackTX 2012
The first HackTX was created by the Technology Entrepreneurship Society and Hacker Lounge of the University of Texas, Austin and held in the university's Student Activity Center, October 19–20, 2012. It attracted about 300 attendees.
The university Founder of Capital Factory and veteran Austin tech investor, Josh Baer, commented that this was the largest hackathon he had seen in Austin.
The first place winners, Lynx Labs, developed music visualization software using a Microsoft Kinect
Kinect is a discontinued line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB color model, RGB cameras, and Thermographic camera, infrared projectors and detectors that map dep ...
sensor and won five Google Nexus 7 tablets. Second place team won five 23” Samsung monitors for their multi-factor identification physical entry device. The third place team developed an automated flashcard application to help students study for tests for the prize of three Apple TV's. Special prizes went to the product with the most market potential, TrivialMobile.com, an application that builds a mobile website from information submitted through email. The award for most creative project went to a rapid image transformation application for Windows, dubbed ‘Instagram for right-clicking.’ Twilio
Twilio Inc. is an American cloud communications company based in San Francisco, California, which provides programmable communication tools for making and receiving phone calls, sending and receiving text messages, and performing other communic ...
gave out two Spheros to a team who built software to control its 200-pound robot using text messages. Context.io awarded two ACL Live tickets to a team which built email analytics and visualization software.
Other supporters included the Murchison Chair of Free Enterprise, UT Events Co-Sponsorship Committee, RideScout, VMWare, ReturnPath, Alsop Louie, Palantir, Microsoft, HomeAway
HomeAway was a vacation rental marketplace. It operated through 50 websites in 23 languages through which it offered rentals of cabins, condos, castles, villas, barns, and farmhouses.
Founded in February 2005 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, ...
, InfoChimps, Rackspace, Twilio Communications and Indeed.com.
HackTX 2013
The second HackTX was held on the University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...
at Austin's campus, November 15–16, 2013. Sponsors included Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
, Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
, Andreessen Horowitz
AH Capital Management, LLC (commonly known as Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z) is an American privately held venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. As of M ...
, eBay
eBay Inc. ( , often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that allows users to buy or view items via retail sales through online marketplaces and websites in 190 markets worldwide. ...
Inc and more.
The event included more than 425 participants. Finalists presented in front of a room of their peers and judges, including Brett Hurt, Josh Baer, and Bob Metcalfe.
Whistlehero
"Guitar hero for whistling. This app was built completely in HTML and JavaScript. Comments were made about the potential of the app being used to not only fine-tune whistling skills, but to learn the skill itself."
Relevant XKCD
"Not only waRelevant XKCD
a funny presentation but the team has some serious potential as a search engine technology – fuzzy searching – searching when exact results are not known." Alert Meet "Alert Meet aims to solve the room reservation problem found in libraries and co-working spaces. Steve Lyons used a series of motion detectors to let users know when reserved rooms were in fact empty and available."
HackTX 2023
HackTX 2023 was held on the University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...
at Robert A. Welch Hall and the Gates Dell Complex, October 21-22, 2023. Sponsors included Capital One
Capital One Financial Corporation is an American bank holding company founded on July 21, 1994, and specializing in credit cards, auto loans, banking, and savings accounts, headquartered in Tysons, Virginia, with operations primarily in the ...
, DevRev, Dish, Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
, Analog Devices
Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI), also known simply as Analog, is an American multinational corporation, multinational semiconductor company specializing in data conversion, signal processing, and power management technology, headquartered in Wilming ...
, Quantiq Partners, Southwest Research Institute(SwRI) and others.
The event attracted 747 participants with 191 submissions. Challenge categories included Best Overall, Best Novice, and Best Design, along with sponsored challenges. These included the Capital One challenge focused on financial hacks and the Procore challenge focused on the mental health of construction workers.
References
External links
Relevant XKCD
* {{Official website, http://hacktx.com Hacker culture Software development events University of Texas at Austin Recurring events established in 2012 Culture of Austin, Texas 2012 establishments in Texas Hackathons