Join us on February 4th-6th for M&T Bank’s first annual Meet & Hack, a hackathon and conference for the RIT community.
In teams of 1-4, you'll have 24 hours to create something new (an app, website, business idea, you name it) and compete in one of three categories—Health, Community and Gaming—to win some awesome prizes.
In addition to the hackathon, we’ve gathered an outstanding lineup of developers, technologists and leaders from inside M&T Bank to lead tech talks and share industry knowledge. You won't want to miss this.
SCHEDULE
FRIDAY | ||
5 - 5:45 pm | Working in an Agile Environment - Nicole Smith | Virtual |
6 - 6:45 pm |
Career Kick Start - Erika Tozer Panel featuring Mike Zaharkin, Josh Monica, Jason Lamb |
Virtual |
SATURDAY | ||
8 - 9 am |
Check In Come let us know that you're here and ready to hack! Also pick up your swag and t-shirt! |
Concourse |
9 am - 10 am |
Team Formation Workshop - Arpan Shah and Donald Fung Looking for a team? Join our team formation workshop and find teammates while brainstorming hack ideas. |
CloudCover Conference Center |
10 am |
Hackathon Kickoff Join us in the CloudCover Conference Center as we welcome you all to Meet & Hack 2022! Hacking commences at 10PM. Good luck! |
CloudCover Conference Center |
11 - 11:45 am |
Test Automation - Thomas Haver Teams that adopt automation often rush to automate everything they can – the automation firehose. Just because a scenario CAN be automated does not mean it SHOULD be automated. In this talk, we’ll learn how to automate both strategically and tactically to maximize the benefits of automation. |
GOL 2730 |
12 - 1 pm |
Lunch Panera (vegetarian & vegan options available) |
Concourse |
1 - 1:45 pm |
Code Organization & Style - Joshua Haber This talk gives you a look into the world of linters and static analysis. I will go over why is important to check your code and the simplicity of incorporating some of these rules into your projects. We will also cover some common software design patterns and how to structure a large project. |
GOL 2740 |
1 - 1:45 pm |
Software Testing - Thomas Haver Lessons learned from a career in research science can be applied to QA, with parallels to industry product quality models. Testing techniques and product delivery processes from research science will aid not just testers but the entire team in delivering quality software. |
GOL 2730 |
1 - 4 pm |
Mock Interviews Schedule a mock interview with an M&T Bank employee! |
Virtual GOL 2791 / 2793 / 2795 / 2797 |
2 - 2:45 pm |
Kafka and Event-Driven Architecture - Dan Cochran Learn about data streaming, events, and where they fit in a modern architecture. We will review core topics in this space and demonstrate them leveraging Apache Kafka as the event streaming platform. |
GOL 2730 |
3 - 3:45 pm |
Cloud Computing - Mike Zaharkin Learn more about what all the hype is around cloud computing, touching on several topics including service models (SaaS, PaaS & IaaS), virtualization, and cloud migration. A demo using AWS will be provided along with information on how you can get access to the cloud to learn more about what it has to offer. |
GOL 2740 |
4 - 4:45 pm |
Multistage Docker - George Colgrove IV Learn more about how to make smaller, more secure, and efficient way of constructing images with Docker. |
GOL 2730 |
5 - 5:30 pm |
DevOps - Matt D'Accursio Come learn about DevOps and how an organization strives to make improvements to their engineering lifecycle with the use of automation. We will review what is required to drive the transformation and some examples of existing pipelines we are using at the bank. |
GOL 2740 |
5:30 - 6 pm |
Blockchain - Joe Caulfield Come learn about one of the hottest topics in the software development industry today and discover why this revolutionary technology is poised to change the world. |
GOL 2730 |
6 - 7 pm |
Dinner Chipotle (vegetarian & vegan options available) |
Concourse |
7 - 7:45 pm |
Ransomware - Dave Falgiano Ransomware and extortion attacks are becoming more common place and can be seriously disrupting to businesses. We will discuss what they are, the motivations behind these attacks, and how threat actors look to achieve their objectives. With this in mind, we can discuss using real-world examples focusing on each component of the NIST Cybersecurity framework. This proactive approach before you have an attack better positions you to Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond and Recover from such an incident. |
GOL 2740 |
8 - 8:45 pm |
Technology Trivia - Arpan Shah and Donald Fung Come join us for a fun event! Join in teams of 1-4 as we go through a few rounds of trivia about technology. Each member of the winning team will get an Amazon gift card! |
GOL 2750 |
SUNDAY | ||
8 - 9 am |
Breakfast Tim Hortons |
Concourse |
9 - 9:45am |
How to Prep for the Coding Interview - Arati Thapar Today’s talk is to help you all prepare for the coding interviews and hoping some of you all would make it here at M&T. Most of the interviewers look for you to write clean, simple, meaningful and understandable code during the coding interview. Along with this, the interviewers also care for the time and space complexity of the code they’ll make you write during your interview. In today’s session, you’ll see how to prepare for a coding interview with a guide of tips, some examples, websites that’ll help you practice and study different data structures that’ll be potentially be used in your coding question and an open dialogue!“ |
Virtual Presenter, GOL 2740 |
10 - 10:45 am |
Containerization - Taranjeet Kaur Container Technology and Orchestration has gained a lot of momentum with increased focus on building Microservices which enable quicker IT response to Market Demands. It also touches aspect of how it changes different aspects of software lifecycle and how do Project teams need to think and act differently with the advent of this technology. |
GOL 2730 |
11 - 11:45 am |
Data Analytics - Tony Huynh Are you interested in how data analytics, engineering and data science come into play within the business? Marketing is leading the charge to bring data driven use cases to life @M&T. Please join us in this tech talk to get a sense of the landscape of data in business and discuss a few case studies! |
GOL 2740 |
12 pm |
Hacking Ends All submissions due through DevPost by 12PM. Submission include a 5-minute video presentation of your project along with any additional project files and information. |
|
11:30 - 12 pm |
DevPortal at M&T Bank - Puneet Nahata See how DevPortal at M&T bank enables product teams to ship high-quality code quickly. |
Virtual GOL 2730 |
12 - 1 pm |
Lunch Wegmans (vegetarian & vegan options available) |
Concourse |
1 - 1:30 pm |
Kahoot! - Mike Zaharkin If you attended all the Tech talks and paid attention, this is your opportunity to win a prize playing Kahoot! Come to the Conference Center at 1PM. Questions will be taken from each of the Tech talks so be prepared! Top 3 scorers will recieve a $50 Amazon Gift Card. |
CloudCover Conference Center |
1:30 - 2:15 pm |
From RIT Student to TDP - Joshua Haber Current TDP and RIT alumni Joshua Haber talks about his experience at M&T Bank, and what he wishes he knew before joining the professional world. |
GOL 2740 |
2:30 - 3 pm |
Winners Announced All winners will recieve the appropriate prize listed in Prizes below. In addition, winners will have the opportunity to have a 1:1 Virtual Coffee Chat with an M&T Technologist. |
CloudCover Conference Center |
We’re committed to being accessible, inclusive, and beginner friendly. We’ll have a team of talented mentors available 24/7 via Discord for any hacking guidance you may need. Students uncomfortable with participating in person are invited to meet and/or hack remotely from their house or dorm.
Requirements
Teams will either submit a 5 minute video or conduct a 5 minute in person presentation showing off their project along with any additional project files and information. The presentation must address the following questions:
• Clearly describe your idea. What problem are you trying to solve/how will it add value? Who are your users?
• Explain your technical stack. What languages/tools/technologies did you use, and why?
• Where will you take it next?
• Any other notable features/results/takeaways?
Prizes
$9,860 in prizes
1st Place - Community Track
Samsung Odyssey G5 27” Gaming Monitor
(1 prize per team member)
1st Place - Health Track
Samsung Odyssey G5 27” Gaming Monitor
(1 prize per team member)
1st Place - Gaming Track
Samsung Odyssey G5 27” Gaming Monitor
(1 prize per team member)
2nd Place - Community Track
Corsair® K100 gaming keyboard
(1 prize per team member)
2nd Place - Health Track
Corsair® K100 gaming keyboard
(1 prize per team member)
2nd Place - Gaming Track
Corsair® K100 gaming keyboard
(1 prize per team member)
3rd Place - Community Track
CanaKit™ Raspberry Pi 4 Starter MAX Kit
(1 prize per team member)
3rd Place - Health Track
CanaKit™ Raspberry Pi 4 Starter MAX Kit
(1 prize per team member)
3rd Place - Gaming Track
CanaKit™ Raspberry Pi 4 Starter MAX Kit
(1 prize per team member)
Most Creative Hack
Amazon Echo Dot (4th Gen) and $50 Amazon gift card
(1 prize per team member)
Best Beginner Hack
Bose® SoundLink Color II
(1 prize per team member)
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges

Thomas Tribunella
Technology Development Program

Joshua Monica
Software Engineer

Joe Caulfield
Software Engineer

Weston Marshall
Technology Development Program

Donald Fung
Technology Development Program

Arpan Shah
Technology Development Program

Victoria Faltisco
Technology Development Program

Matthew Fitzgerald
Technology Development Program

Malkiel Asher
Technology Development Program

Hollis Pauquette
Technology Development Program
Judging Criteria
-
Idea
• Does your idea tackle a real-world problem/is your game fun? Who are your users? Where will you take the project next? How well did you present your idea? -
Creativity & Originality
• Is your idea or approach novel, creative, or original? What sets your idea apart from any competitors in this space? -
Technical Challenge
• How challenging is the problem you’re trying to solve? How well suited is your tech stack to the problem you’re trying to solve? -
Solution Quality
• Does your solution achieve the desired outcome? How polished and accessible is the user experience?
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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