https://chihacknight.org/ Attend the talk and then pick a “learning group” to participate in. First timers typically attend the Intro to Civic Tech group. Every Tuesday from 6-10pm on the 8th floor of the Merchandise Mart. RSVP required usually 1 week in advance. Use your UPass to get there.
Initially expecting a large event, I was pleasantly surprised by the small community formed by the weekly Chi Hack Nights. People from all over Chicago, with some even visiting, would come to listen to the special talk at the start of the night, and then split up into groups of five to ten people. When I attended, the talk given was about the using the collective force of volunteers around the world to help identify pictures for scientists in different fields, including astronomy and biology. Not only is there a large and growing community for these crowd-sourced projects, but volunteers have direct access to talk about their projects with the very scientists conducting them, and may even make new discoveries of their own.
The night then shifted into break-up groups. I went to the Civic Tech group, which was described as a quick 10 minute introduction to get newcomers settled and into other groups. While the introduction actually ended up being 20 minutes, it nonetheless introduced me to other people around the area, many of them students looking to get into technology. For the rest of the night, we split into other groups. I joined the cybersecurity group, which ended up being an intense discussion with five other people about the technical and political implications of a certain security loophole by China in IPhones. The loophole was brought to the attention of the group by an article the starter of the group saw regularly browsing the internet. It talked about China’s ability to circumvent browser security through the phone and target Uighur Muslims based on the typical sites they may visit, and while we didn’t necessarily have the capability technologically to answer a lot of our questions, it did give us a lot to think about, such as how someone would be able to do this, the effects of using this technology in a society, and overall privacy of accessing the internet.
Given the time, I would definitely attend Chi Hack Night again, and I would also encourage anyone else looking for a light project and working on their networking skills to come. From experience though, make sure you use the elevators with a security guard, or you may end up doing as I did in attempting to get to the 8th floor when most of the elevators don’t stop at that floor (using the stairs). Also be prepared to introduce yourself along with a short description (i.e., three words) at the beginning of the event, and have fun connecting with other like-minded individuals.
My first time going to ChiHackNight was approximately 2 years ago, and yesterday I revisited. I was amazed to discover not only that this event still occurred, but also that its popularity and sponsorship had seen tremendous growth over the past couple of years.
Dr. Stephen Kleinschmidt was the main speaker at yesterday’s ChiHackNight. His lecture discussed the newly implemented course curriculum at UIC that now offers students an MS in civic analytics. This new area of study at UIC focuses on teaching civic technology and data analytics in one major. Moreover, Dr. Kleinschmidt highlighted the curriculum’s focus on teaching information technology to address civic issues in the public sector, a method of complex problem-solving that – he argues – is lacking in many data science courses offered at other institutions.
After Dr. Kleinschmidt’s lecture, people gathered into their breakout groups. Considering that my last time participating was 3-years-ago, I chose to attend Civic Tech 101 which focused on helping newcomers get familiarized with ChiHackNight. Here, I discovered that many newcomers had come to ChiHackNight with a similar purpose. They all wanted to get involved in civic tech to address public issues. One woman had an idea of leveraging a mobile app to publicly voice issues they encountered in public transportation in an effort to help others avoid certain spots on the train/bus. Another person named Taylor discussed how he wanted to recruit new developers to help him with his 2-year-long project that he described as “an online cross-platform for controversial topics with a similar architectural design as Wikipedia.” These conversations quickly exposed a variety of real-world applications of software development aimed at solving public concerns. I consequently started to view computer science as a tool for civic empowerment and not just a simple area of study. ChiHackNight was inspirational and informative, and I hope to attend more events in the future.
Prior to attending the Chi Hack Night, I was excited about what I would be learning about and the people that I would meet at the event. I didn’t know what to expect since it was my first time attending a Chi Hack Night, but I’m glad that I attended and have had the chance to meet new groups of people from different backgrounds.
The session began with a small introduction of everyone at the event in which we were told to say our name and give a short 3-worded description of ourselves. After the introduction, Shamus Tomey, editor-in-chief and co-founder of Block Club Chicago (a nonprofit, digital-first news organization dedicated to delivering reliable, nonpartisan and essential coverage of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods) gave a short talk about his website. Shamus talked about how he came about in launching his organization with his peers and how he was able to successfully connect with numerous cities in Chicago. One thing that I found interesting during his talk was about how Block Club Chicago was constantly looking for people to hire full-time reporters in the city so that they could connect to more parts of Chicago and get as many news reporters out there to gather as much information as possible in all parts of the neighborhood. Another point he brought up was on utilizing guest writers/bloggers for content. He mentioned that as long as the guest writers/bloggers are credible and stay unbiased, he was willing to interview them for content to add to his website.
I would attend the Chi Hack Night again if given the chance. Meeting other people who share the same interest/passion as I do and learning about the different ways in which I could utilize my skills was truly a great learning experience for me.
(10/15/19)
Before going to the Chi Hack Night, I had a few expectations for it, one being that it would be a large event where it would be all hackathon related, a small presentation followed by an intensive 2 hours of straight coding. However, these expectations were proven to be wrong.
It was a smallish event, maybe around 30 people, and the presentation was not all about how to hack or hackathon related. Instead, it started off where each person in the room would give a short description of 3 words about themselves. After that, Shamus Toney, the guest speaker and the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Block Club Chicago gave a short presentation about his organization, which is a nonprofit, digital-first news organization dedicated to delivering reliable, nonpartisan and essential coverage of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods. Shamus talked about how Block Club Chicago connected people throughout Chicago, keeping people updated on the latest news in the area. The organization utilizes freelance journalists willing to go out into all parts of Chicago in order to get unbiased stories from the community, as long as they are credible and don’t have their own agenda.
After this, when people split off into groups, I attended the civic group. I was amazed at how people could use computer science to solve problems within the city, and for nonprofit as well. I have respect for people who would sacrifice their own time and energy to help others, similar to how Block Club Chicago was started to keep the community informed and connected.
Overall, I would definitely attend an activity like this again because it was very enlightening and a great learning experience, listening to people who utilize their skills in computer science solving real-world problems, for that is something that I wish to do as well.
Jiahao Zhang
(2019/10/15)
I participated in the ChiHackNight activity this time, and I was very nervous before going, because I had never been there, and I was new about hack But I was also a little excited, because this was the first time for me to participate in the group activity outside the school, where I could know and join the new group. It should be fun.
Before you go, I have to tell you that it will be difficult to find the place. The elevator can’t go directly to the eighth floor, you have to ask the security there to get to the eighth floor. They also provide some food and drinks, you can take a break before the presentation.
When ChiHackNight begins, everyone need to make a simple three-word self-introduction + your name, and then they start their presentation. In my event, the man introduced the Block Club Chicago, it is an online newspaper which reports the local Chicago news. Also, It is not profitable, They volunteer to report the news, just want more people to know what’s going on around us so that people can see the truth.
After that, they will divide into many different groups to discuss various things. Don’t know any of the groups? Dont worry, they have a group for new people, which introduce more about ChiHackNight.
If there is still a chance, I will go there again and join different groups to find my favorite research direction, make like-minded friends and work together to make the life of the city more beautiful.
I attended the Chi Hack Night last Tuesday(October 15th). Before going to the event, I did not know what to expect because I have never been or even heard of this. I was expecting it to be a hack related talk. I was excited to be able to learn more about this event and meet new people that would expand my knowledge and open my eyes to different perspectives. Another plus was there was free food! While I was there, I realized it was not as big of an event as I anticipated. The speaker of the night talked about creating Block Club Chicago. This helps people get updated with news. This non-profit has a dozen of reporters trying to get local news to their readers. A cool fun fact was that this was the first online newspaper that delivered news about Chicago’s different neighborhoods. When we split off in groups, I learned that Computer Science can be so diverse because it helped solve the problem of staying connected in Chicago. Even though this event was not what I was expecting, I would love to attend another talk like this because it motivated me to keep going with CS and showed me all the vast ways you can use it.
I felt excited and curious before I went to this event. I had never heard of this event before so it was my first time. I expected there to be a lot of professionals and not many students. I didn’t know what the merchandise mart was but when I went there I really liked the office space where this event was held. It was held in a large room where you didn’t really need a microphone to talk. In the beginning we introduced ourselves with our pronouns and three words. For my three words I said “Computer Science Undergrad”. All of the people there except for my friend and I were professionals. Many of the people were new to Chihacknight.
After introducing ourselves there was a lecture by Eric Sherman, a Full Stack Developer at the City of Austin’s Office of Design and Delivery. He talked about how he built technology for police accountability in Austin, Texas and how the technology benefits the city’s residents. This activity lead me to understand more about computer science because it showed me that it is not a strictly technical field and that you can work with many fields and still be a computer science. After the talk I attended the Civic Tech 101 breakout group.
I would attend an activity like this again because I found it to be quite interesting and eye-opening. It showed me the different possible careers I could have by studying computer science. I felt a little lost during the breakout group session but I would attend this event just for the lecture.
Before attending the October 22nd Chi Hack Night, I was expecting a large event where people watch a small presentation when they arrive and are put into groups to code on a simple project given. When I arrived, the people there were so welcoming and it felt like a really close community. They spent the first 30 minutes just welcoming people and trying to get to know everyone. During the rest of the time there was a speaker and later we split into groups of different topics to learn about what interested us most. Beginners attended a different group first and then split into bugger groups. I was also expecting the event to be targeted towards young people, but I was surprised when I found people from all ages and with different skills attending. This activity helped learn more about computer science by teaching me that computer science isn’t only about coding and being able to create something with code but rather knowing how to deal with people and how to incorporate what people want into code. Eric Sherman talked about building an app for police accountability in Texas, his main focus when talking was not about code, but defining what accountability is and focusing on user’s wants to allow more people to use it. I would definitely attend an event like this again because it made me feel welcome and they were open to all the questions I had about the different topics they discussed. I’ve noticed that most people who are commenting about this event had similar expectations of a big event and finding it to be a very welcoming and small group instead.
11/05/2019
Initially, I was nervous to go to Chi-hack night because I was alone and I didn’t know what to expect at this event. I am usually always prepared but this is different and totally new. I was not used to that sort of thing. However, as I attended that event, Hack night helped me realized there is more to Computer Science. There was no presentation that day so it was an open hack night. This means we go and break into groups immediately after its announcements. I attended the Civic Tech learning group because it was beginners-friendly and I was totally new. Apparently, at Chi-hack night, Each learning group has a project that pertains to anything related to the Computer Science field. the group talked about the history of Chi-hack night and the many leading projects including about the infrastructure of some of the buildings in Chicago. I like how they want to use Architecture and Data science together to create something out of the ordinary. In conclusion, I would attend this event again but with more experience in Computer Science because I felt really behind in the learning group even though it was beginner-friendly.
Before going to the Chihacknight event on November 5th, I thought I was going to be surrounded by expert coders that have had years of programming. However, that was not the case, and I felt more comfortable because there were many people who were pretty new to computer science at the event. This was the first computer science event that I have ever attended. At the beginning of the event, there would usually be a presentation, but unfortunately that was not the case for this week. There was still food for everyone, and later everyone started separating into smaller groups. People in my group took turns and went around introducing themselves. One thing that I noticed was that there were people who were involved in fields outside of computer science. I feel like the fact that everyone has a different approach to solving problems is something important that I learned. This shows how people that are studying different things can be beneficial to a team because the diversity can lead to more creativity. It reminded me about one of the first lectures from CS100, because it proves that computer science is not really about computers nor is it really a natural science, it is more about critical thinking and problem solving. These people may not know 10 programming languages, but their problem solving skills are just as helpful. Chihacknight was a pretty interesting event, and I would definitely consider attending another computer science event in the future.
Before going to the ChiHack seminar on November 12th, I had no idea what I was getting my self into, yet I was also excited about what was yet to come. I convinced one of my friends to sign up and come with, and it was both of our first times going to it. Once we got there, we learned that there is a large gap of students from completing high school and from continuing and completing a higher education like college or secondary school, which was the same issue in many country’s in Europe and even in America. We went to the ChiHack and learned about the Chicago civil database, where you can use all the data for free to use as a database for any AI or applications you want to code. I would attend the event again, and I plan on attending next Thursday’s event also and see if I continue going to it. As I read Luis Acosta’s report on the ChiHack event, I notice that I also agree with his statements, some people were very highly educated in computer science. However, there were too many people that were lower-level computer science or didn’t even know much about computer science, and they were more interested in the civil aspect of the ChiHack I went to. I also agree that when everyone split up into groups, it was a chill hangout session with other people that seemed to be knowledgeable enough or very knowledgeable about the different topics within the different groups.
I had a similar experience as Brandon when it came to having no idea what to expect going into the event and didn’t know what I would be getting out of the event. I was definitely surprised by the wide range of knowledge of Computer Science and programming that was seen at the event. It definitely made me feel a lot more comfortable being there for the first time with there being high school students who weren’t experts on what was going on. The event helped me to understand that there is more to Computer Science than just programming and writing code, there is also a large social or community aspect about. This is true in a sense that there is a community with a lot of people who are all very passionate about Computer Science and as Brandon said it was very nice to be able to have a conversation with people who had interests in similar fields and subjects. I also agree with Brandon that I would be very interested in going to another event very similar to this one as I feel as though it would be a very enriching experience and I can learn a lot from going to event similar to this one. In conclusion this was a fun event to go to and I would be interested in attending another event like this one and it might be fun to go with a group of friends.
I have been to a chihacknight once before when I was in high school as I dont live too far from the city so I was fairly excited to attend another chihacknight because it is always a place where you can find new ideas related to civil tech.
I learned about a large number of resources that are free for public use in order to advance civil tech. These tools are being provided by the civil tech organization WorldChicago.
ChiHackNight helped me understand that computer science is not just about innovation and entrepreneurial ventures, but can be used to help fix fundamental problems in the world
I would attend ChiHackNight again for reasons mentioned by Brandon. The breakout groups are always a great way to learn about a new topic and there are a wide range of people that come through a given ChiHackNight so you are always sure to find people with varying skills.
I attended chihacknight on November 12 with 2 friends. Before I went, I had no clue what this was about. but I still felt a little bit excited because I can practice my English listening again, haha.
Once we arrived there, we found there are many people introducing their jobs and the programs they are doing recently. Some of them are entrepreneurs for IT, some of them are doing the small business, some of them are programmers. One of the presenters who impressed me very much was a CEO of a institute of education of slovenia. She told us 64 percent of citizens have no digital skills and only 10 percent of students get any kind of education like that in schools. Therefore, the school she founded can train teachers and students to get coding skills.
Then, I joined a group called cybersecurity. we discussed many topics like how can you prevent your information from be stolen by other people, how to protect networks, devices, and data from attack. Even though they told me a lot information, but I still could not truly understand their idea due to the language barrier and I am just a novice of the CS.
Anyway, it was really fun, and I will go if I have time next time.
I had never been to chihacknight before, so I was interested and excited in seeing what chihacknight was about and to see what happens during the event. I was also very excited about learning new things and ideas, but nervous about not knowing anyone there and possibly being the odd one out as a student with not very much experience in coding.
Luckily, when I got to the event, there were many other people who had little experience in coding and other Freshman IIT students.
Something important I learned during the activity was the lack of developers and a lack of coding education in other countries around the world. This was talked about through a government fellowship program who gave a speech at chihacknight. I thought it was very interesting how little education there is regarding coding in other countries because coding and computer science is a very large and significant field in the modern United States.
I learned more about computer science through the group I joined at chihacknight. The group I initially joined was a group of coders who were using algorithms in python in order to detect possible corruption in Chicago’s aldermen regarding their voting decisions. This group helped me learn a little bit about coding in python. This group also helped me learn about how computer science is implemented into and used in the real world because of how this group were using coding to track voting data and possible corruption in politicians.
This is the second Chihacknight that I attended, the first one being last year. I kinda knew how these talks worked so I decided to choose something that would intrigue me.
The lack of coding education and developers migrating from different countries is very alarming because of how true it is! Ever since I decided I wanted to learn more about coding and how programming works I knew that having to attend college here in the United States was necessary. My coding classes back home were very lackluster and honestly very unuseful compared to intro courses taught here. This helped resonate with that the talk was about.
I learned alot about how we can improve education regarding coding and programming. I also saw the application of Computer Science in the real world by small interactions that I had with people at the Merchandise Mart venue.
This was my first ChiHackNight, but the second hackathon I’ve ever been to, so I had some sort of idea going into it. I was pretty nervous going into it thought because I was unsure of my skills, but when I got there I was pretty relieved since everyone there were also on different skill levels. I also got to meet up with other IIT students at the event so I didn’t feel completely alone. During the talk, I learned about the lack of coding education in countries and thus why developers migrate countries. It was a bit of a cultural shock to me because in America there’s a large emphasis on learning computer science and coding so you can get ahead in your career, but in other countries it’s harder to learn computer science. When we got to split up into smaller groups, it was pretty fun and chill to learn new topics from other people. If given the time and opportunity to go to another ChiHackNight, I probably would go.
(2019/10/15)
I went to the ChiHackNight activity this time, and I was very happy before going because I thought the topic is very interesting for me. But I had never been there I also felt nervous about that, and I was new about hack. I really what to know more about my major by other way then study in the class. So I just be excited to that place to join the group.
Before I went to that place I try my best to figure out where are that place it’s hard to found. I ask the professor where is the lecture, then he told me at 8 floor, I take the elevator to 8th floor. They give us a lot of food and water to let us be relax before the lecture I thought that’s really good for me, because I didn’t eat any food that morning.
When that began everyone should said their name to do a self introduction. I thought that’s interesting that can help me to know the other people near me and easy to be friends with them. In my event there have a men told aaa bout the Chicago local newspapers and technology environment I thought that will give me other side information to let me know more about the world so that’s very helpful for me. After that they told me to talk with other people in this lecture to transform our information to make friends. I make a lot of friends in this lecture they come from different school in Chicago they told me their school news and I just talk about the iit news that really make me felt good.
If there have any lecture like this I will go again I thought this event is interesting also can make a lot of friends. We can have the friends have different opinions with us then we can learn a lot from what they thought. That can make our world better.
This was the first time I attended ChiHackNight, and I felt both worried and excited when I was on the way there. I felt worried because I was really tired that day after working on my homework; I did not know if I could fully engage in the event. Meanwhile, I felt excited because my friend told me ChiHackNight was fun and you could learn a lot from it.
At the beginning of the event, there was a thirty minutes presentation from 15 tech leaders who participated in the Professional Fellows Program, a program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and brought emerging tech innovation, entrepreneurship, and education leaders from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, North Macedonia and Montenegro to Chicago for short-term professional development fellowships. During the presentation, I learned about how some other countries lack the education of technology. For example, there was a leader from Slovenia argued that students in her country were falling behind from other students who were from more developed countries in terms of digital education. She hoped to develop a program to train teachers in Slovenia mastering digital skills.Afterward, we were split into different learning groups, and I joined a group of cyber security and I learned a lot from the group.
I will definitely go to ChiHackNight again and join the breakout groups with different topics.
Last Tuesday (11/12/2019) I went to my first ChiHackNight. It was an event that I was actually excited to attend since it would actually be related to CS, unlike the Humanities talk I attended weeks before. I was also nervous since I went by myself and didn’t know if my coding experience wouldn’t be enough to fully take part in this event. After arriving, I was lucky to meet other IIT students which made the experience more enjoyable and comfortable.
They brought a lot of speakers from different countries (Slovenia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia. They talked about how in their countries they have enough interest regarding STEM Majors but not enough resources to adequately prepare their next generations due to issues such as lack of funding or a technology gap affecting either students or professors. It was interesting because I thought that countries like Croatia or Slovenia especially would have a lot more resources available for Computer Scientists but that wasn’t the case.
I and other IIT students joined a group that centered around developing algorithms to stop political corruption in Chicago. It made me understand python better than I did before and also made me see great examples of how coding is used in real life. It also made me more interested in the Data aspect of CS.
I will definitely consider going to this activity in the future because I feel it is another great way to get more reps or experience when it comes to coding.
Date: 11/12/2019
The ChiHack night was composed of multiple speakers from a particular area of the world, who talked about their countries and the program that brought them to Chicago and their plans of action that they were going to carry out once they returned to their countries of origin. Most people who spoke about going back to work on their own startups or working on the issues that plague their country, for example, one of the speakers wanted to close the tech gap in Slovenia since 64% of the citizens don’t have any tech education, another spoke about how their plan is to create a digital hub for women to obtains information about woman’s health. After the speakers were done the breakout groups were in session. I felt very curious about this event going in, wondering what I was about to get into as it was the first time, I attended something like this. I would definitely attend an event like this again, the speakers were interesting, and I found the breakout groups pretty interesting and I found the one about the history of the ChiHack night helpful as it allowed me to understand exactly what the event was all about. I also found the group about the software used form political purposes in order to stop corruption really intriguing.
I went to the ChiHackNight on 11/12/19. When I went there I really wasn’t sure what to expect. Maybe a mini hackathon, but I don’t know what that really is either. At the activity I found out a lot about ChiHackNight as an organization, and the work it does. The main event at the night I went to was about helping to close the technology gap between America and some eastern European countries by using Chicago as a model. I has assumed that the issues would be focused on Chicago in particular, and I found it very interesting that the influence of this organization was much more global than I thought. I also found some of the breakout groups afterwards rather interesting. The main one that I learned about dealt with figuring out patterns in how Chicago politicians voted. I also went to and intro group that talked about the basics of ChiHackNight and how to get involved more in the future. I would definitely be open to going to such an event again, and plan to do so at some point in the future. It’s always a good thing to try and make a difference in the world and ChiHackNight seems like a simple enough way to do it.
I attended the Chi Hack Night on October 2. Before I go there, I think it was a big lecture that can contain hundreds of people, but when I arrived, there were only around 40 people there and I felt a close community. One thing that I cannot understand is they spend around 40 minutes to introduce everyone in the lecture and waste so many times on fixing the device. I was expecting this lecture is only facing college students, but what surprised me is I found people of all ages and different jobs. This lecture topic does not interest me, but I learn a lot in this lecture. I know that CS major is not only focused on coding or do some project that other people need. CS can work in policy. The speaker talks about some goals they want to receive. For example, they want to do address barriers to accessing the complaint process, maintain an accessible online intake form for complaints, compliments, and concerns. They also mention how they build an app for police accountability in Texas. I was surprised that this activity is not about writing code or teach people how to write a complex project. They mention some principles and ideas which interest me and help me a lot.
This was my first time attending a Chi Hack Night. Before going to the activity, I was actually looking forward to attending Chi Hack Night, as I thought it would be a good experience, and would help me understand more about Computer Science in general. My friends also told me how enjoyable of an experience they had, so I thought I would have a similar experience.
The topic of this Chi Hack Night was Civic Diplomacy through Tech Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which is not what I expected at all. I expected the Chi Hack Night to be more inclined towards coding projects in groups, but it started with public speakers from different countries. The public speakers, including CEOs from Croatia, Sarajevo, and Slovenia, talked about their involvement in tech innovation in their respective countries. After the speakers finished, we were divided into breakout groups related to computer science, which is what I initially expected. I joined the group of cybersecurity, where I learned a lot about the role of cybersecurity workers and how important cybersecurity will be in the future, since technology will only continue to advance, requiring stronger security.
Overall, I had a fun experience at the Chi Hack Night. I would probably attend something like this again. Although, next time I would probably attend with a group of friends, as it would be easier to go with a group of people I already know.
When I was signing up for the chi hack night I was not sure what to except like what we would be doing like if they would talk about things they were doing or I would be in a small group working on a project with other people at the place. Some of the people talking about what they were doing was interesting like one person talked about how he was making a program that tracks and shows you abandoned buildings around the area. He also said how it can give you info about the place like who owns it and if there is any federal documents about it. Then another group presented that I learned was that people are trying to make a web page for people to get involved in actives around Chicago and get more connected to people in the town. Something I found out is that it is a lot harder then I thought to make some of these thing you see on every web page like categories search and key word searches on the web page and that is then next thing this group is working on to implement into their website and after to get it into beta version to launch. I think I would be go to these again they seem interesting to see what group in the Chicago area are working and are developing for people and people come up with these ideas and see how they develop and change over time.
At today’s Chihacknight, the main presentation was about a group called “In2It”. They are working on a project to create a tool and website to help people be more involved in their community. They explained all the different aspects of how they plan to go about completing and enhancing their final product. They started out by going over the basic design of the tool and how it shows on a map or in a list, different events. The events would be organized based on location and how close they were to a specified location or ZIP code. They then talked about the different aspects that they were still working on and how they would try to implement them. The main need they had was for people with experience in creating account portals as well as confirming identity through captcha. Near the end of the presentation, they also talked about how they used “Docker”. Docker is a service that compiles programs and all the needed directories and libraries to essentially run code on any computer without needing to download any extra sources. After the presentation about eight groups came up to talk about their projects and what they needed help with. Most projects seemed to be in the beginning stages.
On 11/12/19, My friend and I attended a Chi-Hack Night and left with more insight into the broad range of possibilities and career paths in computer science as well as a few valuable insights and tools to use in day to day activities as well as within our classes. The presentation was an hour-long presentation by WorldChicago and their PFP, Professional Fellows Program which hosts individuals from Europe who wishes to expand their own startups/businesses. an example of one of these individuals was a man who came to Chicago in order to research tourism for use in his augmented reality tourism idea. Beyond the presentation, in the breakout groups, we learned more about how a civic duty may be performed through computer science of all forms. Another thing we gained from the breakout group was the Chicago data portal, which lists an absurd amount of data of all kinds of genres. Following this breakout group, we visited another group that had created a startup with the intention of resolving common political issues with o clear answer. Essentially he wished to create a wiki log of all controversies and list why they are so controversial. from this, we learned how to take an idea and translate it into a program.
Before going to the ChiHack seminar on November 19th, I now had an idea of what to expect when I got there. I convinced one of my friends to sign up and come with me again. Once we got there, we learned about in2it Chicago, where they plan to make an impact from Chicago by only volunteers working together on coding the website and its program on it. Their website is hugely feedback based and was developed initially at ChiHack. They were looking to implement login and authentication, categories, and better searching. on the backend of the coding they use docker, vue.js, node.js, scrappy, and post SQL. After the presentation, when we were breaking out to our break out groups, I helped a fellow civil engagement enthusiast by returning a few items he dropped after he got up and we went to the same group talking about this program that has a list of abandoned building around Chicago. When we went to the ChiHack, we met many likeminded IIT students that were interested in going to satisfy the Extra-Curricular Assignment, but we learned much more after that was got us through the door. I would attend the event again, and I plan on attending next Thursday’s event also to try to see if I can become a ChiHack member.
Last night, 11-19-2019, I attended one of the weekly Chi Hack Night events. Going into this event I had never attended a Chi Hack night before and I did not know what to expect as a new computer science student in the presence of actual computer science professionals who actually had an idea of what they were doing.
When the event started I found out being a professional and having a large background was not necessary for attendance and there were a good amount of non-computer science professionals in attendance. The talk itself was about IN2IT, a platform that had been continuously developed at Chi Hack Night that promotes Civic Engagement. Throughout the talks they discussed the importance of being involved in the community and how their platform can bring people together through showing local events and how they can get involved. Overall I really enjoyed their presentation and I believe this platform can be very useful for citizens of Chicago.
In all, I think I would enjoy attending this event again as a way to improve my programming skills and meet professionals who could potentially assist me later and could boost my resume.
I attended Chicago hack night a few month ago, and that was my first time to attend lecture out of school. I was hesitating to go there, because I do not think it is not safe to walk in downtown at night.
Finally, I decided to go there, since I need to write this blog to get credit. LOL
The topic at that night is “Exploring the new $45 billion state infrastructure package”. The state of Illinois spends $45 billion to fund transportation, water infrastructure, natural resources, open space, school construction, affordable housing, and other projects. Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP)
with its partner are now implementing ON TO 2050, a new long-range plan to help the seven counties and 284 communities of northeastern Illinois implement strategies that address transportation, housing, economic development, open space, the environment, and other quality-of-life issues
I attended Chi Hacknight on 11/19/19. Going in, I was expecting a large event where we listen to some speakers talk about the fancy work they have done, and learn something about Computer Science through their showing off. I was taken aback by how nice, welcoming and humble everyone there was. It was a professional yet a relaxing and chill environment at the same time. The community that is built there is truly beautiful to see and something that more groups and parts in this world can use. People from all over Chicago from various professions(most being CS) came to participate in this activity. Initially they talked about what they are about and the Beta version they are about to launch to grow their community and benefit more people. Then we broke into smaller groups, I went to Civic Tech group, it mostly had students of my age throughout the Chicago area but also professionals currently working in the field that talked about their current projects and possible recruitment from one of us students. They talked about how Computer Science is more than coding and with the future possibility of AI starting to code, coding jobs in the future will be going down. They also talked about the importance of being able to communicate what you are doing and helping people who do not understand computer science, understand what it is you are doing. The importance of team work, collaboration, how different real life work situations are from a classroom. I found this whole event to be tremendously more informative and helpful than the Humanities fest event, Student Debt, I attended. It taught me more about Computer Science but also introduced me to people of various backgrounds interested in the same things I am. I would gladly attend another one of Chi Hacknights.
Before going to Chi Hack Night I did not know what to expect from it, I did not find a lot of information about this event like what I have to do there. I was afraid that I will not know what to do because I am new to Computer Science and I do not know much about it. I was surprised by the variety of people that went there, they were all ages and not only men as I expected, but there were also a lot of women. When the event started, all of us introduced ourselves and then we had a 5-minute conversation about hobbies and level of education in COmputer Science. Then a few leaders introduced their projects and what their goal. I joined the group that as I understood was creating an update for the CTA Tracker app for more accurate information and advanced design. They are seeking new ideas and new features for the update. Those who work on the app told that they want to add that feature that you can transfer your route from Apple Maps or Google Maps or actually go from maps app to CTA app and you can see routes available with buses and their arrival times so you can choose which one at that moment works better. Also, they told that CTA is arguing to again allow using a credit card as a payment method and there was a long discussion on this topic. Also, leaders showed us how the development looks and explained some parts of the code but for me, it was hard to comprehend due to lack of experience in programming but still it was very curious. Furthermore, such type of event is a great way to meet new people that are interested in the same field as you and a place where you can find even a job since there were a lot of announcements from company representers that they are looking for new people for their team.
When I first looked into the Chihacknight, I was a little unsure about what would actually be going on as it isn’t a full on hackathon. But when they explained the other projects at the end I realized it was just a meeting place for like minded people to get their ideas out there and get help from others who also like that specific idea. The main presentation today was about a group called “In2It”, they’re trying to build a program to help bring people together by showing different events that are nearby. The main idea they presented was about civic engagement or just people getting involved in society to try to have an impact on it in some way. The program seemed to be in its early development stages, they needed people to help with lots of things, ranging from back end coding to people with knowledge about creating accounts and verifying identity via captcha. Throughout the presentation, four people talked about the different parts of the site and the program. Overall the project seems like it really has the potential to bring others together, which was the programs main purpose to begin with. Another neat feature they seemed to want to add was the ability to add custom events, although that would only be possible after they have the accounts set up.
At first, I believed that a Chihacknight was mainly focused on coding and was an event to help people prepare for a hackathon. Because of this, I was always unsure of whether I would be motivated enough to make myself go to these events. However, after going there for the first time on November 19th, I discovered that it was way more than I thought. Initially, we were brought into a room where they made an hour-long presentation on different projects that were in development during the past hackathons. In particular, the group, “IN2IT”, talked about their attempts to making a platform based on civic engagement. They emphasize the importance of involvement with the community and through their project, they aim to find ways that would help people join in the causes. After attending this Chihackathon, I became more aware of the opportunities that it grants to both students and adults. Such opportunities can be the experience to work with professionals on real-life projects or learn and act on detrimental problems with society. What strikes me the most about this event is that anyone can join even if they have a small number of programming skills, as their opinions and perspectives are just as important. Overall, I believe that I would attend more Chihackathon events as it occurred to me that it can help me develop crucial skills in the computer science field, as well as become associated with many professionals.
With little knowledge about CS and coding in general, I was a bit worried before going to this event. However, when I got there the environment felt very open and welcoming. First, everyone introduced themselves and then there was a presentation from a small startup group called In2it. They explained what they were trying to do and what they needed help with specifically. They felt they needed a lot of user feedback. After the presentation, several people that needed help for a startup or a group came forward. I chose to be a part of a small research project that involved mostly the use of Python, as I felt my services would work best there. The event was very informative and I’m glad I went there. It was very open and welcoming and actually the opposite of how I thought it would be. I will definitely go again!
This is my first time to attend chihacknight. Before I went, I was not confident, because I didn’t have a rich background in computer. And I don’t know what the speaker will talk about, but I am still a little excited, after all, it is about their own professional content. When I arrived, the room was packed with high school students, people who were already working, and of course, college students. Anyway, lots of people of different ages and different professions. At first, they introduced a lot of research projects. All the projects were great, which made me determined to do some decent projects in college. Then a group called “IN2IT” which is want to study a project about civicl data. I also make a few friends at here. They both know many computer language. And they may give me some ideas of my project in the future. This seminar enriched my knowledge of computer science. I understand how to use data properly. Of course I will attend the chihacknight in the future.
When I first went to ChiHack Night, I believed that it would be focused mostly around coding and kind of similar to a Hackathon. I was unsure about going because I didn’t have very much prior experience in coding and wondered if I was going to be in over my head. I went to the ChiHack Night on November 19th and when we first got there, the first thing that was talked about was a group called In2It. They wanted to create a site that displayed volunteering possibilities in the Chicago area. While I like their idea and believed their intentions were good and right, I wasn’t interested. Although I was very interested in this event, I realized this event could be beneficial to myself and other students as well as those interested in tech-related jobs. It gave people the opportunity to explore different groups related to tech allowing them to experiment and find out what they like. It is also a good thing to put on your resume and can possibly help you get a job. I believe in the future I would attend more hack nights however I hope the topic and groups in them will be more interesting.
Before I attended ChiHackNight, I believed, like most people, that this would be a traditional Hackathon where we would get into groups that consisted of college kids with energy drinks and start coding a project. However, that was not exactly the case: when we arrived at the venue, there was free food and drinks. There were some college kids present, but a lot of the people there were already in the workforce, in fact some of them did not even having software related jobs. After everyone was done eating, we gathered for a presentation about a group called “IN2IT”; this group was a community-oriented project with a goal of creating an application that displayed all possible volunteering opportunities in the Chicago area. I thought this was a pretty amazing idea, as the objective of the project was not for profit or entertainment, but rather a means of giving back to the community. After the presentation, we proceeded to split up into groups and talk about different sections of the project that were under development. We listened in on about two or three of the groups, each of them discussing a different aspect of the project. All in all, I thought this was a great experience, as I learned a lot and have access to a side project in my free time.
This is my first time attending Chihacknight. before attending, I was expecting some things like coding challenge and solving algorithms or building a robot perhaps. But I was wrong, it was something that I totally had never experienced before, it’s like a tech workshop where people from around the globe are gathered and worked on things that interested them. When we arrived we founded there is not a lot of college kids like us, but rather with people who are more mature and experienced. We sat down and went through the entirety of a project that had started off from Chihacknight called In2it which is a platform that wanted people to be more involved in civic engagement. Despite this is a voluntary project, but the amount of effort and patience that people have put in makes me think that is the beauty of this event, to get people involved in this little tech community, assemble a team that to work on a project that they interested in. They’re also a job posting where people can potentially find a job that they are interested in. overall I would rate this experience 10 out of 10, just because of how it allows me to explore more of the city and have more experience.