Florida’s largest annual hackathon, Shellhacks, took place at the Kovens Convention Center in the Biscayne Bay Campus this past weekend.
This event has always provided a gateway into the young minds of talented coders and their visions for the future of technology. This year over 1,500 students from across Florida worked diligently for 36 hours to present a website idea to notable corporations such as Google, Microsoft and Capitol One.
The hackers also competed for coveted rewards and state-of-the-art technology and internship offers.
At the end of the event, all companies announced the winners of their individual awards on top of Shellhacks’ own general rankings.
FIU Computer Science student Ricardo Garcia was in utter shock when he was announced as the first-place winner – and was presented with prizes including a MacBook Pro and an iPad, and 2nd generation Airpod Pros.
What made the win much more vindicating for Garcia was the fact that he executed his project “Shellshocks Racing Game,” by himself and had no expectation of winning.
The talented hacker was already appreciative of being invited to take part in the event; his sole intention was to utilize it as a learning experience. However, after spending 10 hours straight coding, Garcia’s efforts paid off. He created an engaging game that impressed judges and his fellow hackers alike. He left Shellhacks 2022 with his life changed.
