BE Smart Hackathon 3.0 Looks Like Our Best Yet

Have you ever taken a look at someone’s résumé and felt as if you should give up and quit your job right now? Well, that’s how I felt looking at the sterling résumés of some of the college students—that’s right, college students—who will be competing in this year’s BE Smart Hackathon—Black Enterprise’s third year holding a hacking competition in Silicon Valley and the second one sponsored by Toyota.

(The winning team from last year’s Black Enterprise TechConneXt Summit Hackathon)

Each year we’ve raised the bar a little higher and this year we’ve been so impressed with the students’ backgrounds. Most of the participants are experienced hackers who’ve previously competed in hackathons. Several have held internships at some of the most exciting and prestigious tech companies.

But what’s unique about our hackathon is that all the students attend historically black colleges.

HBCUs at the BE Smart Hackathon

That’s something else that’s changed every year—the number of schools participating. We started with five schools in 2015, doubled that number last year, and this year we’re at 15 HBCUs. Every school that participated last year came back this year.

(Scene from last year’s hackathon)

The following schools are competing:

Alabama A&M University

Bowie State University

Delaware State University

Dillard University

Fisk University

Florida A&M University

Hampton University

Howard University

Johnson C. Smith University

Morehouse College

Morgan State University

North Carolina A&T State University

Prairie View A&M University

Southern University and A&M College

Tuskegee University

Toyota has provided great prizes for the winning team, and new this year will be second- and third-place winners acknowledged from the main stage. Also new: The top three schools will present before all the summit attendees instead of in the hacking room just in front of the judges.

We also have a career fair for the students as well as for general summit attendees; and students will get to tour the Intel and Google campuses.

Have I piqued your interest? Register today at http://www.blackenterprise.com/techconnext/.