We live in a data-filled world. Over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created every day—everything from election polls to Pokémon Go collects and uses big data—and the number of data collecting services around the world only grows. Working with and understanding data is a valuable skill for many students and scholars, from art historians to engineers. That’s why this fall the library is hosting HackCulture: A Hackathon for the Humanities, for students from across disciplines to work together on data-driven projects.
Participants will work in interdisciplinary teams of four to create projects that relate to the Champaign-Urbana community. We hope the final results will be creative, useful, and engaging, but their final form is up to each student group! HackCulture will give participants the opportunity to network with like-minded individuals, and showcase their projects to the public. Plus, the members of the winning teach will each earn $1,000. (And they said studying the humanities would never make you money!)
HackCulture will officially start with a Kickoff event on October 1st, from 3:00-5:00 in room 210 in the Illini Union. Groups will have three weeks to work before they present their final projects to the judges on October 22nd, from 3:00-5:00 in room 210.
Students interested in participating who want to build-up their technical chops before the event can attend a Humanities Data Programming Workshop on September 28-29th. This two-day Humanities Data Programming Workshop is meant for the true beginner, and will teach programming skills for working with humanities and social science research data. Sign-ups for the workshops are located at the https://my.library.illinois.edu/data-programming.
For more detailed information about the contest, judging, eligibility, and the application itself, head to the HackCulture homepage. If you have any questions about HackCulture, you can write an email to hackculture@library.illinois.edu, or leave a comment below.
Otherwise, happy hacking, Illini!
