Mattresses sprawled out across the floor of the CPMI Event Center this weekend will offer hackers sleep, however it’s only optional. 

HackISU is a 36 hour hackathon running all weekend that brings innovators from Iowa State University — and other state universities — together for a team-oriented, software-building competition. Students work day and night during the event on a project of their choice in groups of up to four people.

“A hackathon is an innovation competition mostly geared toward electrical computer engineering students, but all students can attend and participate,” said Garret Meier, senior in software engineering and director of HackISU.

Meier said students can — and most do — concoct their ideas before the competition, and the possible ideas aren’t limited to just hacking. Students participating in past HackISU competitions have created innovations including a robot, a program that could find a betta fish in a bowl and a program that gathered Twitter data and determined if it was positive or negative.

“It originally came about from the computer science and software engineering club,” said Alec Poczatek, graduate in electric and computer engineering, co-founder and past president of HackISU. “The event is really important because it provides an opportunity for students to learn things outside of class.”

Poczatek said HackISU is the only event like this within 300 miles of Ames. Students at Iowa State would need to drive about five hours to get to the next nearest event.

“We’ve had companies approach us asking us if we want to turn [HackISU] into a huge event,” Poczatek said. “Our goal is not to make the event bigger. Our goal is to help the students.”

Building better resumes and giving students more hands-on experience outside the classroom is what Poczatek said he and the other members of HackISU’s committee are trying to provide with this event.

In addition to competition and experience, Meier said HackISU is an opportunity for students to network with companies that sponsor the event and open doors to potential consideration for employment. Sponsors of HackISU include Vermeer, Optum, Maverick Software Consulting and more.

Jacob Stimes, senior in software engineering and first-time participant in HackISU, said he looks forward to networking and having the opportunity to apply his knowledge to his team’s project.

“I think it’s a really good experience to work under time pressure,” Stimes said. “It’s more than just learning technology and working on apps.”

Stimes, who already has a group for HackISU, said the general idea for their innovation is a project collaboration site. Stimes said the idea is most valuable and feasible to him and his group.

Meier said HackISU began in 2013 as a yearly event, but became semesterly after the committee decided to hold the event more often. This weekend will mark HackISU’s fifth event.

Starting with check-in at 5:30 p.m, HackISU will run Feb.19 to 21 at the CPMI Event Center and is free for all students.