Boneyard Hackathon Thank You

[Brad Luyster]

Thank you LVL1 for a great 2012 Boneyard Hackathon.  Video is forthcoming, pictures have been uploaded to http://www.flickr.com/lvl1, and everyone is exhausted.

We had 54 hackers competing across 9 teams, and everyone created something incredibly impressive.  We had teams come from as far away as Indianapolis and Cincinnati, and we had competitors as young as 11 years old. A peak hacktivity level of 1820 MegaJons was reached within the first 30 minutes of the event.

Bloominglabs came and built an array of musical instruments, including a mixer and amp to drive them.  The UofL Triangle Fraternity represented with a nearly-functional floppy-drive keyboard.  Tim, Aaron, Joe, Nick and others from LVL1 managed to build a 3D Scanner out of parts from the boneyard, Nathan and Katie built their own first place trophy.  Jose was dangerously close to completing his robotic Rock 'em Sock 'em robots game, while Bill P. and some old friends of his assembled a very nice laser pong game.  Team "Destined for Failure" came out with an electronic looping instrument driven by a PS2 mouse, while "The Newbs," consisting primarily of two eleven-year-old boys managed to assemble a PC out of parts in the basement.  Finally, some young guys from Cincinnati assembled a matrix-keypad driven synthesizer.

In the end, the Synthesizer and the PS2 mouse looping instrument shared 3rd place, while the 3D scanner came in 2nd.  Bill P. and his team won the first place trophy and a year worth of bragging rights with their laser pong.

Thanks to everyone that showed up, everyone that helped out.  It was a great event, everyone had a lot of fun.  We brought in at least 18 people that have never been to LVL1 before, and consumed way too much pizza and soda.  Thanks also go to FoodCalc for providing libation for the event.

Unfortunately, the event's goal of emptying out the boneyard was not achieved!  Somehow, the stuff in the boneyard has actually *multiplied*!  I appreciate any patience with the mess: I intend to have it cleaned up by Tuesday evening.

-Brad

[John Coder]

Great job Brad and much thanks for co-ordinating this.

[Brian Wagner]

The Boneyard hackathon was AWESOME!!!  Incredible job to all the participants.  And super hacker props to Brad!

[Joshua Wilcox]

Thanks everyone especially the cooks in the new kitchen. :)

Sent from my iPhone

[Jonathan Clark]

Thanks for this Brad!  For those who were not there, this was easily one of the best events I've seen at the space. (even including some drunken episodes of JoeNickLiqourTazer).  The atmosphere was incredible and you could tell everyone there was having an awesome time!  Not to mention the number of locals that turned out at the space that had never been before. 

The no-rules, no-structure model of the competition worked wonderful as well, and it really made the whole event more about "Let's make some cool stuff", and not "Let's win this thing!".   Where I was expecting hoarding of prized trash by teams, instead there were team members hunting for parts for other teams. It didn't feel like a contest, it felt like 50 geeks building amazing projects, all together, as one big group...  and that is awesome.

I can't say enough about how impressed I was by the Hackathon and it's instant success.  Again thanks Brad and Congrats on such an awesome event.

[Joe Pugh]

Thank you for putting together suck an awesome event brad.  I can not express how much fun it was to non competitively compete with so many makers and hackers.  The best thing that was built was the competition itself and I look forward to the next time it comes around.  I know that there was other people that helped make this possible and I know I do not know them all so thanks to anyone and everyone that helped directly and indirectly.  Including but not limited to Joe Lagreek, Team Kitchen (Lauren, Jynn, Steph), FoodCalc, Josh, and Gary for helping with every project.

[Brad Luyster]

Yes! I cannot possible thank anyone involved enough.  Team Kitchen, without you guys, many of us might have starved.  Without Joe LaGreek, many would have gone uncaffeinated.  Gary was a trooper, staying up until 4 am, helping many people fabricate so many different parts to their project, and Josh got the stove working just in the nick of time, besides helping out too many teams to account for.

[Bill Piepmeyer]

Thanks everyone for a great event. My friends Dan and Leo from Cincinnati and I had a great time, and were thoroughly impressed with the awesomeness of people at LVL1 including visitors. The whole event showed an amazing spirit of cooperation, fun, and what can be done by the synergies of the broad range of talent that LVL1 has brought together mixed with caffeine and junk food. The amazing things that were created from what most would consider electronic and mechanical crap was really incredible. Even the things that did not get completed in 24 hrs were still pretty incredible.

We wanted to thank all involved. I hope I don't miss anyone in particular.  Brad for putting it together and enduring mine and others endless array of questions before the event. The kitchen crew (Jynn, Lauren, Steph) for keeping us feed good food, so we did not have to live off just vending machine goodness, and all those others who helped with food and drinks. The young BloomingLab's member who helped us locate an amplifier for our sound. Bob the Bodybuilders (the high schoolers from Cincinnati) who provided us with the notes for "Taps" when you fail.  And anyone else we might have missed.

-- Bill Piepmeyer 
-- Dan Kelly
-- Dan (aka Leo) Pelzel