WESTWOOD—LA Hacks 2017 took place over the weekend from March 31 to April 2 at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion. About 1,000 people attended the event, consisting of high school, undergraduate, and graduate students. LA Hackers competed in teams of four people to build and innovate software or hardware.
This year, the event introduced a separate competition for data hacks, where participants worked with tools for mining, visualizations, and more. The weekend event lasted overnight, and participants brought their own sleeping bags. On its website, LA Hacks recommended attendees to bring their own reusable water bottles and any electronic wastes in an effort to promote environmental sustainability.
Sponsors of the event included Microsoft, The Walt Disney Company, and Bloomberg. Participants in need of help and advice could request help from mentors through the link, https://mentor.lahacks.com/. Verizon Digital Media Services was one of the mentors at the event helping out students, tweeting, “We’re here at UCLA, mentoring at #LAHacks! #GoHackers @ LAHacks.”
Prizes included advanced technologies, such as the DJI Phantom Quadcopter Drone with 2.7K HD Video Camera + VR Headsets + AWS Credit, which was given out as the first place prize.
On the LA Hacks Facebook page, past participant Austin Vaday described his experience at the event.
“Went last year, and had the time of my life! Highly recommend this to anyone looking to create something beautiful with technology – no matter what your expertise,” said Vaday.
