UMD Hackathon Team Featured on NPR

Students from the University of Maryland’s Terrapin Hackers team were featured by National Public Radio’s (NPR) “All Things Considered” for their first-place finish in the Fall 2013 Major League Hacking (MLH) Season.

Listen to the NPR story about the University of Maryland hackathon team.

The team, including Clark School of Engineering students, is changing the perception of the word “hackers.”

“I consider myself a hacker, but I don’t like to break into computer systems,” said electrical engineering student Kunal Sharma.

Hackathons are weekend-long events where students work in teams to produce inventive hardware and applications for computer, mobile devices or the Web—some of which could serve as a basis for new companies. NPR reporter Claudio Sanchez accompanied the Terrapin Hackers team to PennApps, the University of Pennsylvania’s hackathon event.

“To students here, hacking is not about breaking into anything at all,” said Brent Bovenzi, an electrical engineering and government studies major. “A lot of people do things that could help the world.”

The Terrapin Hackers team beat out more than 100 schools, including MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Michigan, and Carnegie Mellon, to earn the Fall 2013 MLH Championship Trophy. On April 4-6, the Terrapin Hackers will host the University of Maryland’s first hackathon, Bitcamp, at Cole Field House.

"All Things Considered" is the most listened-to, afternoon drive-time, news radio program in the nation, airing on over 560 radio stations with over 13 million listeners tuning in each weekday.

Listen to the NPR story.

Learn more about Bitcamp.

Published March 20, 2014