With Hackathons Taking Center Stage, The Coming Transformation Of The Computer Scientist
For the first time next semester, more than 10,000 students are expected to participate in one of 10 mega-hackathons, in a discipline that graduated just about 16,000 students in 2012.
It is telling then that these hackathons are almost exclusively student-run, filling in the gap between their enthusiasm for building new products and their curriculum’s emphasis on theoretical constructions.
Fontenot believes that “People are going to realize that this is more than just a hobby, but an educational revolution.” He emphasized that the skills developed at hackathons go beyond just pure programming, and include product design and working in teams, skills that have traditionally been excluded from computer science work.
Komissarouk, though, cautions that the changes need to be seen more as additive to a traditional computer science education, rather than a replacement.
Fontenot believes that hackathons are already starting to replace the process of interviewing at a company.
That acceleration can already be seen in MHacks, where two of the seven top prizes were awarded to high school students. Indeed, Fontenot argues that if you want to get into college today, doing a hackathon is a particularly strong approach.
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