Spotlight on our Network: Everything You Need to Know About a Google Hackathon

Jimmy Tobin, Google Lime Scholar and Lime Connect Fellow '11, recently attended the Google Scholars' Retreat in NYC where he participated in a 24 hour hackathon. He shares his experience with us, including the song that got him through the night...  

Hi Jimmy! Tell us a bit about yourself.

I grew up in Myrtle Beach, SC the mini golf capitol of the world! I am currently at Stanford finishing my undergrad in Symbolic Systems, an interdisciplinary program in Computer Science, Psychology, Linguistics, and Philosophy, and starting my master's in Music, Science and Technology. I'm focusing on creating video games to help with cognitive therapy and learning more about what happens to our brain when we listen to music.

You were selected as a 2013 Google Lime Scholar, which means you recently attended the Google Scholars Retreat in NYC. What was the highlight of that event?

At the Google Scholars Retreat I loved learning about all the different walks of life that Computer Science students come from. I enjoyed learning all about the various interests and research areas represented at the scholars' poster session. I was inspired by some of the passion and amazing ideas and I hope to work on some projects with some scholars in the future.

As a partner of Google's, Lime Connect participated in Google's 24 Hours of Good, which was a Hackathon where scholars helped non-profits with a tech related project. Can you tell us about the project you worked on? 

The highlight of the retreat was definitely the 24 Hours of Good Hackathon. It was my first hackathon, and I was so lucky to have an amazing team to put up with my antics throughout the whole 24 hours!

We worked on redesigning the Lime Connect Website. I was very excited since I've been using the site for 3 years now. Our team worked with Jennifer and Susan to understand what the site is used for and who comes to the site. We worked to create a usable and accessible site that would look professional. We focused on creating a more engaging site, so users would become more involved with the Lime Network.

We worked throughout the night designing and coding a new website just for Lime. By the end we were all exhausted, but with only 2 hours left we had to put some finishing touches on, so I blasted "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor to boost morale. I like to think that got us through.

We bet things got interesting around 3 am! How did you handle working with three strangers on a tough project all night long?

I tried to keep everything upbeat and I think my partners realized it was coming from a good place, so they put up with me. I think the best part was that 2 of my partners were from Chile. When taking a break I'd ask more about their culture and they'd ask about mine. I was really amazed to learn that most of the Latin American scholars had not traveled outside on a plane before and this was their first trip to America. They told me that a plane ticket could cost multiple years wages! I was also really impressed after learning that their research was on educating Latin America about computers.

How was this project different than those you've tackled at school?

I think the main difference was that we all came from different backgrounds and created a whole project in one day instead of over the course of a week or so. I am actually pretty used to powering through an entire project the night before, but doing it in a team meant keeping communication going even if you were too tired to talk. 

Anything else you'd like to share?

Growing up in South Carolina there was not a lot of emphasis on technology as there is in California, so I never programmed until I got to college. I really want to tell everyone in the network to learn to code. Computer Science is starting to overlap with so many different areas of study that it can only help set you apart in your field. There are amazing, free resources out there to teach yourself the basics of any area of Computer Science, such as Coursera, Udacity, or Google Code University. If you think that you might be interested in something that doesn't involve computers, remember that I study computer music. Those are pretty different fields! If you are in university do not think that you need to have been coding from out of the womb to be successful! I started my freshman year with absolutely no experience, as did so many of my peers. Look into things like Machine Learning, Data Visualization, Web Design, or Mobile because there are jobs everywhere for any of these intensely interesting fields. Coding is accessible to everyone as I've also met some amazing Lime Network members in Computer Science who have done great work in the field.

I'm also incredibly thankful to Lime Connect for all of the amazing opportunities and experiences that they've given me over the years! If anyone's on the fence about applying to something on the Lime Network, do it! It's an awesome group of people.

Jimmy (second from left) with his Google hackathon team. 

The Google Lime Scholarship application is now open!
Deadline to apply is December 2, 2013. To learn more and apply, click here.