VIS4ALL visualization-centered hackathon at UVic campus

From February 22nd to 24th, 2024, the collaborative efforts of the Design For People Lab (DFP Lab) from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the VIXI Lab from the University of Victoria (UVic) culminated in a visualization-centered hackathon at UVic’s campus. With the title “VIS4ALL”, the event aimed to explore the omnipresence of information and challenge participants to create engaging designs for visually communicating information in real-world scenarios. Twelve undergraduate, master’s, and Ph.D. students from both universities, representing diverse backgrounds and expertise, participated to the hackathon. The participants were divided into 4 teams and each team chose a problem from the problem pool. Since the participants came from various background, creativity and interdisciplinary collaboration are the key foci of this hackathon!

On the night of the 22nd, the hackathon commenced with a vibrant opening ceremony held on the 3rd floor of UVic’s iconic McPherson Library. Professors Miguel Nacenta from the vixi Lab and Karon MacLean from the DFP Lab delivered inspiring speeches. On February 23rd, teams embarked on their respective challenges, commencing with a 30-second ’elevator pitch’ session to outline their chosen challenge and their strategy for tackling it. Following a day of intensive collaboration and innovation, the hackathon concluded with a presentation session, during which teams unveiled their design and answered questions from the audience. Later in the evening, all participants and organizers gathered for a dinner, fostering networking opportunities and strengthening camaraderie among attendees.