(Photo by Yukthi Sangoi)
One might expect engineering students to still be fast asleep early on a Saturday morning, but attendees turned out in droves to participate in the Byte Into Hardware Hackathon. The first-of-its-kind event was hosted by NJIT’s student chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, or IEEE, on the weekend of April 1–2. Most hackathons are software-based, but Byte Into Hardware encouraged participants to combine physical and digital components of a product.
IEEE’s director of public relations Nakul Kochar, a fourth-year computer engineering student, shared that a hardware hackathon initiative had been in the works for several years. “Given that IEEE consists of computer and electrical engineers, we put our own twist on it to give engineers an opportunity to compete that was tailored around them,” he said.
IEEE…