A look at ICHack

Over the last weekend, the department of computing society (DoCSoc) held their annual Imperial College Hackathon (ICHack ‘22), engaging over 50 teams in a 24-hour challenge to come up with original code that solves a problem.

Participants hailed from various disciplines and years: from second-years studying Material Science to first-year PhDs, and to out-of-towners from Manchester and Leeds, with even first years in the mix. Some alumni also competed, as the competition was open to anyone who had graduated in the past year.

The event was organised by DoCSoc’s committee and past committee members - one had even flown in from Zurich to attend for the weekend - to make sure that there was continuity between years, as ICHack ‘21 had to be cancelled due to COVID-19.

ICTV were hired to film the opening and closing ceremonies. They did not have access to the audio- visual suite overlooking the Great Hall, leading to delays of up to 30 minutes before the opening ceremony, but the following event, a talk by Cisco about their Webex Video and Meetings software, started on time.

Felix has learned that someone, in their capacity as a mentor, was allowed to see proprietary information without having signed an NDA (an oversight on the parts of the sponsors involved, as the information could have been leaked and distributed to anyone).

Despite every attendee being asked to take an LFT within 48 hours of the start of the event, as well as mandatory double-vax status, positive cases have been reported from the event.