Northland Hackathon

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Why?

Minnesota rocks and the future should happen here. Right now the state is last in the nation for offering public computer science classes. We're Minnesota's biggest hackathon - and also the most fun source

What happens?

A couple of things:
- Speaker series leading up to the event from Google, Microsoft, and other tech companies
- Weekly emails with internet gems of how to learn how to code
- A day of hackathon where you can meet others and make something cool
- Prizes for the winners
- Free swag after the event for attending given to everyone

Who is this for?

Northland Hackathon is for high school students in Minnesota who want to learn how to:
- make websites
- make apps
- learn how to design
- learn how tech gets built

What are careers in tech like?

Here are some salary samples:
Senior PM, Google - $375,000
Software Dev Manager, Amazon - $426,000
Product Designer IC5, Meta - $250,000
User Interface Designer Band8, IBM - $180,000

source: https://levels.fyi
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What is a hackathon?

A chance to learn more about building things on the internet, writing code, and exploring careers in tech. Northland Hackathon will take place throughout the day, bringing together mentors and students from around the state in a fully remote capacity.

What programming do you have leading up to the event?

We have weekly programming up to the hackathon about getting into computer science, what the career is like, and about tech!

Rida Khasanova, March 14, 7pm CST
Freelance Product Designer and Advisor, Ex Senior Product Designer at Yandex
Speech Title: "Making people’s lives better through design: day-to-day life of a designer in tech and paths to becoming a great one."

Srujun Gupta, March 21, 7pm CST
Founding Engineer at Doss, Ex Senior Machine Learning Engineer at Google
Speech Title: "Hear from software engineers at top tech companies about their career paths and coding tips."

Mikey Rogachevsky, March 28, 7pm CST
Software Engineer at GOAT Group

‍Speech Title: "Working in tech for non-tech backgrounds."

Clara-Léa Bonzel, April 4th, 7pm CST
Research Associate/Data Scientist at Harvard Medical School
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‍Speech Title: "How can we use math and AI to better understand diseases and treat patients"

Amogh Kambale, April 18, 7pm CST
Software Engineer at Square
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Speech Title : "Success, failures, and learnings from building apps on the side"

Who else are your mentors and judges?

Beyond our speakers (many of whom mentor + judge), we also have...

Professor Manjeet Rege
‍Professor and Chair of St. Thomas Department of Software Engineering and Data Science; Director of the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence
PhD Computer Science, Wayne State University

Jote Taddese
Vice President at Optum - UnitedHealth Group | Ex-President at Books For Africa - 60+ Million Books Shipped
MS Computer Science Engineering, University of St. Thomas

Brandan Keaveny
Founder, CEO, Principal ConsultantFounder, CEO, Principal Consultant
Data Ethics LLC
ed.D. Educational Leadership & Administration
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Jessi Benzel
Data Scientist
Master of Data Science, University St.Thomas

Hunter Abraham
Software Engineering Team Lead at Dripos
Math & Computer Science, UW Madison

Ilyas Alhassan
Data scientist at Bio-Techne
Masters of Data Modeling, University of St. Thomas

I don't know how to code. Can I come?

For sure! We're going to be sending out material before the event so you can get up to speed and get your feet wet. These are some great resources.
- https://bento.io/
- https://www.codecademy.com/
- https://pll.harvard.edu/course/cs50-introduction-computer-science?delta=0
- https://projecteuler.net/

Is this remote or in person?

Northland Hackathon is remote-based event as Minnesota is a big state!

How much does it cost?

Through both Californian and Minnesotan sponsors, Northland Hackathon is free for participants. If you want to sponsor or donate to the hackathon, email us [team [@] northlandhackathon.com]. Or you can donate here.

Is there a prize for best project?

Yes, but we keep it a surprise. That said, every student who participates day of get an event shirt mailed to them. Here is last years.

What is the schedule?

We have programming each month leading up to the event with speakers and mentors hosting talks. The day of plan is:
10 am- 11 am Opening
11 am - 1 pm Team Time
1 pm – 1:20 pm Lunch
1:30 pm – 4 pm Team Time
4 pm – 5 pm Presentations

Is there limited capacity?

We're doing our best to accommodate all applications, but there will likely be a cap of how many students we can take. As a result, write a solid application and apply early.

What does it mean to 'hack?'

Basically to play around with ideas and make something new. Think legos or Kinex <3 We miss our Kinex ;(

Want to study engineering?

If you're from NE Minnesota, apply for the Alworth Scholarship - a proud partner of Northland Hackathon.

From Minnesota and Work in Tech?

Team

Luke Heine

Luke built the biggest social network for TikTok celebrities--Swipehouse--which he sold in 2021. Swipehouse had 1.5 billion followers on across creators, got 300+ companies on TikTok in under a year, and was one of the first 5 companies to receive the TikTok API in the US. He was YC W18, raised over 1m, and studied at Harvard. He is from Cloquet, MN, and learned to code in college.

‍AgaLia Ardyasa

Agalia works at Microsoft as an Account Manager. Originally from Jakarta, Indonesia, Agalia co-founded BecomeMore Indonesia: a youth empowerment organization that supports the self-development journey of over 3K+ students from over 1K schools between the age of 11-19 years old. She studied Mathematics & Economics at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

‍Cade Zacharias

Cade works in tech consulting, building apps for startups in everything from blockchain metaverses and sports betting to zoning code visualization. At Hypotenuse Labs, he’s enjoyed digital nomading through much of the world while working alongside top engineers. Originally from Duluth, MN, he studied at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities.

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