Imagine 2018: a hackBCA Event is a two-day computer science conference hosted at Bergen County Academies. We’re open to all high school and undergraduate students interested in taking a wide variety of computer science related workshops taught by industry veterans and attending keynotes from influential technologists. Prior programming experience is not required; we’re here for anyone who wants to learn, meet new people, and create something awesome!
SEPTEMBER
29 – 30, 2018
8 AM – 6 PM
BERGEN
COUNTY
ACADEMIES,
HACKENSACK,
NJ 07601
Eliot Horowitz
Co-Founder & CTO, MongoDB
Anthony Johnson
CTO, GIPHY
Michael Geraghty
Chief Information Security Officer, State of New Jersey
See all here!
Alain Chautard
Expert Web Consultant @ Interstate 21
Alain Chautard will go through an introduction to the Angular framework to build web applications. If you don't know anything about Angular, that's a perfect opportunity to learn all of the basics and get you started with the framework! Alain will talk about TypeScript, components, services, pipes, and how to work with Angular CLI through live coding. More specifically, we are going to understand how Angular works and how it runs in a browser. We're also going to talk about Angular CLI, a tool to help scaffold an Angular application. This presentation will be packed with examples to help understand how easy it is to write Angular web applications.You will also get to practice and build your own application.
Yael Elmatad
Lead Data Scientist @ GIPHY
Yael will go through some of the basic concepts in ML from features to deep learning to give a high level overview of common tools used by today’s data scientists. No programming or ML experience required!
Andreas Kellas
Officer, Software Developer @ U.S. Army
Have you seen any headlines lately about hackers ruining someone’s day? Have you wondered how the hackers pulled it off and what the good folks are doing every day to stop more hackers? Join us as we try to demystify “hacking” and have a conversation about the many opportunities in the Information Security industry. Attendees will come away with an appreciation for some of the challenges in industry and an idea of where they can go for resources and learning materials so that they can one day help with solving those challenges, while also learning some basic security hygiene to stay safe online. No prior background or knowledge required!
Upperline Code
Bootcamp
Come build a browser-based version of the classic arcade game frogger with us in just 30 minutes! Then, you'll use those skills to replicate another arcade game of your choosing, or create a totally original arcade game of your own.
La Vesha Parker
Software Engineer @ Etsy
This talk is for developers who do not think open source is for them (it is), and organizers of open source projects who want to encourage and attract more talent. When I was a junior developer, open source never seemed quite “open” to me. Attempts to navigate interesting open source projects always ended in frustration as I sat alone at my computer, not knowing how to begin or who to contact. I am now a director of an organization that serves as a nexus point of open source projects for social good. As an organizer, I formalized the pain points and trust signals encountered in my personal journey with open source in an effort to remove blockers for hack night attendees. I will present some of those learnings in this talk to show that well-formed open source communities can, and should, be accessible to everyone.
Shirley Wu
Data Visualization Freelancer
In this workshop, we will cover the basics of SVG - especially SVG paths and the cubic bezier curve command - as well as an introduction to D3.js's selection, data-binding, and enter-update-exit patterns. The culmination of the workshop will be to create a set of flowers out of movie data, a simpler version of the film flowers here.
Cassie Tarakajian
Software dev @ Processing Foundation
Let's make a Twitter bot - In this workshop you will learn how to make Twitter bots for fun and art, not for fake news. We will learn the library Tracery to generate sentences and use the platform Cheap Bots Done Quick to deploy our bots.
Matt Scott
Founder, 180° of Impact & Global Organizer, NASA's Space Apps Challenge
Have you ever felt like you can't even? You're constantly surrounded by success stories of people bringing out-of-this-world ideas (startups, tech, communities, perspectives) to life. You want to bridge the gap between your desire to use your skills to change the world and actually making an impact; so, where should you get started? In this talk, Matt Scott, part of the Global Organizing Team for NASA's Space Apps Challenge and Founder of 180° of Impact, will share 3 steps to "hacking for change" and becoming a real-world super hero, collected from countless hours of recorded conversations with change makers worldwide.
For four years, hackBCA has provided inspiration, education, and community to our participants. But after hackBCA IV, our team decided that we wanted to focus on education as our primary mission and we felt that it was time to light a new torch. Over the past year, we’ve been busy transforming our hackathon format into Imagine 2018 in order to provide an unforgettable and diverse learning experience to all of our attendees. We know it’s been over a year since the last hackBCA event and we’re so excited for all that we have in store for you guys!
One of our core goals is offer a diverse range of learning opportunities so that there’s something for everyone. To that end, our workshops and talks encompass a wide variety of computer science related fields for all different experience levels, from different programming languages, cybersecurity, algorithms, UI/UX design, entrepreneurship, and much more. Sign up for an account to be notified when we release our full speakerdeck!
It wouldn’t be a hackBCA event without cupstacking! In addition to workshops and talks, Imagine will still have all of the awesome activities that hackBCA has always had, as well as plenty of opportunities to meet like-minded people and have fun.
Imagine is open to all high school and undergraduate students of all backgrounds and experience levels - just don’t forget to fill out our application. If you don’t fit this category but would still like to attend, reach out to us and consider coming as a mentor or volunteer! NOTE: Imagine will not be overnight this year. However, it is still a two day event.
Then you’ve come to the right place! We’re open to students of all levels and all beginners are encouraged to come. Imagine provides an awesome opportunity to dive into programming. Our workshops and mentors will help you get started with the basics of programming and you’ll leave our event having learned a ton.
Imagine will have an entry fee of $30, which will cover all food, swag, and knowledge. However, if you cannot afford the fee, please reach out to us! We’d love to have you at our event and will be offering scholarships.
If you are a tech professional, professor, or post graduate student, we would love to have you here! Just apply to speak here and we will get in touch with you shortly.
Applications will open soon! Sign up for an account to be updated.