Beacons will greatly increase project discoverability at Hack Night, leading to a stronger connection between attendees who don't know eachother. They can be assembled by Hack Night attendees as a fun hobby electronics project.
Hack Night is a great place to work on whatever you want, but no one knows what anyone else is doing! Checkpoints is a great way to share progress, but it's a single snapshot at midnight with a more one-sided vibe. Why limit interaction with other projects to a presentation instead of a conversation?
Beacons will be an easy-to-use solution to discoverability at Hack Night. An attendee can pick up a beacon and set it up on a companion site with a description of what they're working on. Other attendees can look at the site and ping beacons so they can go talk with the project owner and potentially collaborate or learn more.
- Create a hardware prototype using off-the-shelf electronics (complete)
- Write server implementation and integrate with Purdue Hackers API
- Write firmware for the electronics
- Create 3D model for beacon enclosure
- Create final BOM
- Create assembly instructions
- End of winter break: API and firmware code implemented
- Early 2025: Finish 3D model
- Hack Night 6.0: Ship final project