Today, coders from all over the country will gather in the Innovative Technologies Complex for the second annual HackBU hackathon. HackBU is an opportunity for programmers to collaborate and compete on projects in a 36-hour time period. Organized by students, HackBU is intended to benefit students and pushes programmers and observers alike to pursue the side projects that help us develop job-ready skills.

Unlike most other events on campus, HackBU encourages attendees to actively participate. Instead of passively watching a speaker, movie or theatrical presentation, attendees take part in creative projects with concrete results. On Tuesday, we praised and encouraged more student speakers on campus. More collaborative events like HackBU also serve to inspire students to take initiative.

How does HackBU encourage students to take initiative? Competition. The event is organized so that teams work together to create the best project in a limited time span. This pushes programmers to outdo one another. And even if one is not an expert programmer, event organizers team up such newbies with more experienced students to encourage participation from all levels. Connecting novice students with more experienced programmers inspires them to gain new skills in their years at BU.

HackBU started out as a small group of students’ passion project and then quickly snowballed into something much larger. Students from all around the Northeast come to this hackathon and — like the organization itself — work on a passion project that often snowballs into something bigger. There’s something to be said for the creative sparks that fly when hundreds of students are in a room together, each competing to create something better.

Events such as HackBU work to inspire students from all disciplines, not just programmers. Organizers encourage everyone to come out to view the spectacle. Witnessing our peers do impressive work empowers all of us.

What’s important about this event isn’t just the competition. We want more students, not administrators, to organize events like HackBU. The student organizers worked to provide attendees with valuable resources, including top-of-the-line hardware, corporate sponsorship and access to recruiters. So often we press the University to organize events to help students network and succeed, but it is possible to achieve this ourselves. HackBU demonstrates that as students, we are responsible for creating these opportunities. With hundreds of students participating this week, HackBU’s success shows us that not only are we responsible for creating opportunities, as students we are capable of doing so. This is an example of students helping students. In the quest for prestige and job prospects, we must rely on one another.