Hacking isn’t something we usually think is a good thing. Hacking steals information from others.

However, it serves another purpose. Missouri State University computer science (CS) students hack for good causes.

Many CS students attended hackathons around Missouri this year. The most recent ones are TigerHacks through University of Missouri-Columbia and Hack 4 Good through the eFactory.

TigerHacks

TigerHacks was a 36-hour event Oct. 12-14 that gathered hundreds of students to participate in team activities to build or code projects.

This forum was used to help network in addition to work on existing projects students might have been stuck on.

“Hackathons provide networking experience for students and professionals,” said Dr. Anthony Clark, assistant professor of computer science. “You also force yourself to work on projects that you have placed on the back-burner.”

Hack 4 Good

Hack 4 Good was Nov. 2-4 at the eFactory. They focus on a community project during the two days. This year they partnered with Borrow My Angel to create an app that helped to prevent suicide.

Seven students attended Hack 4 Good, including Hailey Martinelli and Florangel Ramirez.