This year’s Gate Hacks brought together more than 50 student participants from ԱƵ and beyond, for a fast-paced, idea-packed, sleep-optional weekend of creation. With 11 teams — up from seven just last year — the event marked the largest hackathon ԱƵ has hosted yet. Behind the scenes and on the competition floor, two students’ perspectives help capture what made the weekend meaningful: Sophia Martin ’27, a first-time organizer, and Onil Carrion Herrera ’26, a first-time participant.
The Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation was a co-sponsor of the event, and Martin and Herrera are participants in the TIA Incubator, with the Sound Sync and Fridgie ventures respectively.
For Martin, this year was her first time helping to organize Gate Hacks, and the experience exceeded every expectation. “It’s been incredible to watch how much Gate Hacks has grown,” she said. “Seeing that kind of momentum and being part of planning our largest hackathon to date has been such an exciting experience.”
Her drive to join the planning team came from the energy and possibility she’s always associated with hackathons. Even though she’s never competed in one herself, she wanted to help create that environment on campus: fast-paced, collaborative, and full of innovation. Through her involvement in TIA, she has seen firsthand how transformative it can be when students have space to dream big.
Martin said she believes hackathons play a unique role in college learning. They force students to collaborate, think creatively under pressure, and turn ideas into something real in a very short amount of time. “You get a genuine sense of how your skills translate beyond the classroom — and that’s something employers really notice,” she said. “You walk away realizing, I can actually build something meaningful from scratch in only a day.”
Her biggest “wow” moment? The final showcase. “Seeing what students built in just 24 hours was unbelievable. So many teams already have an incredible head start with their ideas and execution.”
While Martin worked behind the scenes, Herrera — a double major in computer science and anthropology — stepped into the hackathon world for the first time. “I wanted to gain experience coding and developing a product that solves a real problem,” he said.
With the theme of entertainment in mind, his team focused on an issue close to the performing arts: the challenge of organizing and sharing choreography within a dance group. Their solution was a collaborative web app where dancers could create projects, upload videos, add notes, and eventually edit clips on a timeline.
“We were able to build all the pages for the app and even upload video clips,” Herrera explained. “We didn’t get the full video editing feature or collaboration working, but getting the timeline to function — even partially — was a great moment. At least there was some validity and functionality in what we were trying to build.”
Though his team didn’t place in the top three, the sense of accomplishment was real. “We overestimated how much work it would be to build video editing software from scratch,” he said. “Making sure to plan the process thoroughly and understand your solution is incredibly important.”
For Martin, the hackathon also reinforced something she’ll take back to her own venture Sound Sync: the power of teamwork.
“This semester was incredibly busy, and I really had to lean on everyone across the different clubs,” she said. “That shared effort, trust, and willingness to step up — it’s something I want to carry into Sound Sync. Building with a team that shares a vision and lifts each other up is everything.”
Though she hasn’t participated in a hackathon herself yet, she hopes to continue helping build them.
“Watching everyone’s creativity come to life is one of my favorite parts,” Martin said. “Maybe one day I’ll participate, but for now, I love being behind the scenes.”
Whether organizing or competing, both students walked away with new insights, new skills, and plenty of inspiration. From the rapid idea-to-prototype sprint to the big-screen “wow” moments at the showcase, this year’s Gate Hacks proved that when students are given room to collaborate and create, they rise to the challenge and often exceed it.
And with momentum surging, next year’s hackathon is poised to be even bigger, bolder, and more imaginative than ever.