Students tackle local issues at Camp Polyhacks
Earlier this quarter Cal Poly students attended Camp Polyhacks, a competition of problem solving. The three-day long hackathon invited students to gather in teams and brainstorm solutions to local problems in San Luis Obispo.
Camp Polyhacks featured guest speakers and mentors who specialized in the issues teams were trying to address.
“We are connecting people with their mentors,” said Kat Smith, a lead organizer for the event. “So if they’re creating a product for food insecurity that will solve food insecurity in San Luis Obispo, we’re connecting them with the CEO of the SLO Food Bank.”
The four problem areas were news and information, mental health and loneliness, food insecurity and cities of the future. The event featured students from all majors and backgrounds, something Smith says her team worked hard to achieve.
“So one of the issues that we wanted to address very early on in the planning process is de-stigmatizing the word hackathon,” Smith said. “People were thinking of coding, computer science, anything that has to do with technology. Sometimes that’s just not the case. A hackathon is an innovation competition and we are focused on social innovation. So, you know, making an impact, igniting change.”
In addition to raffle prizes, the winners of the competition took home $2,000 in cash equivalent prizes. Funding for food and prizes were provided by sponsors of the event like Amazon, Cal Poly Architecture and Dignity Health.
ASI Secretary of Clubs and Organizations Nico Julia entered the hackathon with a team of engineers to create a matchmaking program to connect students to clubs at Cal Poly. Julia cited a survey showing that 40% of Cal Poly students tested positive on the loneliness index as one of the reasons driving his project.
“So it would be really nice to decrease the number of lonely people on campus,” Julia said. “Because, a club is your community, right? You guys have something you have an interest in common, and that’s just something that’s really easy to bond over.”
Julia hopes the survey will help students narrow their choices from around 480 campus clubs, making events like the club fair more effective in helping them find their community.
More information can be found @camppolyhacks on Instagram.
