Terrapin Hackers received the 2013 Major League Hacking trophy on Nov. 6, 2013.
Two months ago, Terrapin Hackers was happy just to be attending hackathons at universities across the nation. After performing well at the University of Michigan’s MHacks in late September, the team was in third place in the Major League Hacking standings with only one event, Rutgers’ HackRU, left on the schedule.
“It was far-fetched to think we would catch the No. 1 team,” said Shariq Hashme, Terrapins Hackers founder and junior computer science and electrical engineering major. “They were at 800 points, and we were somewhere around 600.”
But somehow they did.
On Wednesday afternoon, MLH Commissioner Mike Swift presented the group with the 2013 MLH trophy in the lobby of the Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building. Swift said a few words to a crowd of about 50 before handing off the award.
“It was really amazing to see you guys grow this season and become the center of the hacking community,” Swift told the group.
At HackRU, team members Joe Martin and Ian Sweet were awarded the first-place hack for their script performance analyzer, W.A.B., or Web-based Algorithmic Benchmarker, which earned the squad a much-needed 300 points. It was the first hackathon either had ever attended.
Martin, a senior computer science and mechanical engineering major, said the event was a great experience and a showcase of some of the nation’s best minds. Computer science majors don’t always get the credit they deserve, he said.
“It’s really a very creative major,” Martin said.
After the trophy presentation, the room was still buzzing with excitement as team members passed the trophy around.
And though he said it’s not yet finalized, Hashme later hinted at the possibility of this university housing its own MLH-sanctioned hackathon. A tentative date is set for late February, with Cole Field House as the likely venue.
