Past Hackathon Participants Returning as Mentors to Share Google Technology and AR Expertise
Two immersive technology experts from Google who were past participants and winners in the in the Virtually Reality Hackathon are returning this year as mentors—and bringing some of the latest technology along with them.
Louis DeScioli and Anish Dhesikan will have 40 ARCore/Daydream compatible devices to loan to participants and will teach three workshops—one on GoogleVR Daydream, one on Unity based ARcore and one on WebXR.
Throughout the five-day the hackathon they will be available as mentors, to explain and help design and develop with Google technologies and to share their successful hackathon experience.
“If you have an idea you’ve dreamt of, this is your chance,” DeScioli says. “You’re not going to find a more encouraging environment and group of people to dip your toes in and start down this path.”
When Dhesikan came to the first Reality Virtually Hackathon in 2017, he had limited experience developing in VR and was unsure how much he would be able to contribute.
By the first night, however, he connected with a group of people who shared a common goal of building an application to support education. “We all had different skills, but we all got along really well.”
By the second day, Dhesikan found that he not only had skills to contribute but could help in training his teammates as well. “I was experienced with Unity development and game development, which is useful for VR development, so I was able to teach a lot of my teammates about using UNITY, and I also taught my teammates how to use Blender, which is a 3D modeling software.”
DeScioli went into the 2017 hackathon thinking he would just be there to learn and look over everyone’s shoulders. However, once he began engaging with the technology he quickly found his niche working in Tilt Brush.
“The parts of the hackathon that stand out to me are how diverse the skill sets and people were, and how far away the people came from to participate,” he said.
“I just loved how different it was from most tech events and hackathons I had been to. I like that they set working hours so people aren’t staying up all night, you get to walk around and try things out and meet so many people.”
“I remember meeting a monk who came to the hackathon that first year and was developing a meditation app with a chest sensor that could visualize your breathing.”
“It was this aspect of it that made me want to continue, seeing how interdisciplinary this future of software was going to be.”
Any questions?
Email organizers at team@realityvirtuallyhack.com