On November 3-4 at the Phi Centre, 16 Dawson SPACE-sponsored students and a few alumni, competed in the McGill Physics Hackathon alongside participants ranging from CEGEP students all the way to university postgraduates and beyond. With the help of mentors from academia and industry, they explored physics and computation in a stimulating environment.

The challenge over the course of a 24-hour period was to hack a problem whose solution required the integration of physics, programming, artistic expression and communication. According to the organizers, the level of innovation and ingenuity in this year’s projects was stunning and raised the bar for future years.

We are happy to report that Team Absolute Astronomical Units, a Dawson team formed by Ben Cheung, David Alexander, Manuel Maharjan and Dingyi Zhang, placed 3rd for their simulation of a doomsday scenario in which the Earth can only be saved by deflecting an asteroid from its path using high-powered lasers. This problem, along with several others by the participating students, will continue as SPACE projects this year.

• http://www.physics.mcgill.ca/hackathon2018/
• https://www.facebook.com/pg/McGillPhysicsHackathon/photos/?tab=album&album_id=905426289648798