Hacks with Friends 2021

2021 Virtual Hacks with Friends

The first virtual Hacks with Friends (HWF) is in the books! In the end, eleven hack teams collaborated remotely, over a two week period, to create hacks and go head-to-head in competition. A public vote following a livestreamed presentation of the completed hacks narrowed the field to the top four teams who went on to face our 2021 judges in the finals. Each team presented their hack in a 10-minute presentation. Judges awarded the first, second, and third place team. The 2021 People’s Choice award went to the team with the most votes from the public voting earlier in the day. And the winners are:

The 2021 HWF Judges Awards

1st Place - Team 1: Genetic Testing Prototype
2nd Place - Team 9: Scholarships Come to You
3rd Place - Team 10: IT Mentor Matching On Demand
4th Place - Team 2: Establishing passwords for sponsored affiliates

The 2021 HWF People’s Choice Award

Team 9: Scholarships Come to You

2021 HWF Video Quick Links

If you missed it… Watch the three-minute presentations by the initial eleven teams, the top four teams in the finals, or the judges comments and the award ceremony below. Use the quick links below to navigate through the full length livestream recording. Edited recordings of all the events (opening remarks, 3-minute presentations, final presentations, and awards) will be available to view within the next few weeks.

2021 HWF Three-minute presentations = 44 minutes (3:27 – 47:05)
Announcing the top four teams in team order = 35 seconds (58:02 – 58:37)
2021 HWF Final four 10-minute presentations = 9 minutes (2:32:22 – 3:41:20)
Checking in with a past hack: 2019 Hack #5 “Make a Slack Bot to pull data from Splunk” = 12.5 minutes (3:41:29 – 3:53:56)
The Awards: The People’s Choice Award & the Judges comments and awards = 13 minutes (4:01:16 – 4:14:10)

Our 2021 HWF Judges

Becky Chadwick: Executive Director of Institutional Effectiveness at UM-Dearborn
Michael Warden: Senior Director, HITS Service Management, Michigan Medicine
Eytan Adar: Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, College of Engineering and Associate Professor of Information, School of Information

What is Hacks with Friends (HWF)

HWF is a fun-filled, spirited, annual event where participants are encouraged to break out of their normal routine, form a team, build a project (or hack) from scratch, and show it off in a competition.

HWF is open to any and all University of Michigan IT and technology professionals and advocates, regardless of role. Whoever you are… we invite you to be a part of the HWF experience. It is an opportunity to pick up new skills, make new connections, and explore new technologies and innovative ways of providing IT services. The only limit is your imagination.

Unlike the previous two-day in person events, the seventh annual HWF event took place virtually over the course of the first three Fridays in May 2021 (May 7, 14, and 21).

Questions, ideas, or feedback

Send questions, ideas, and feedback to: [email protected]