That’s what FirstBuild’s 2017 MegaHackathon is all about. Teams will spend September 9-10 trying to “Hack the Home” at the makerspace and microfactory, on the University of Louisville’s Belknap campus.��

FirstBuild, backed by Haier’s GE Appliances, expects more than 300 participants to help create the next generation of home appliances. Teams will be competing for cash and prizes.

UofL students (wink wink, nudge nudge) have actually made a strong showing in past FirstBuild hackathons. During last year’s event, with the theme “Future of Cooking,” MegaHackathon, a team of students, won Best Simblee Connected project for its cooktop that gives step-by-step recipe instructions.��

“We got to come up with an idea for a product, and then see it through to the end,” said then-senior engineering student and team member Sarah Morris. “UofL is so closely tied with FirstBuild, it’s a great opportunity to continue your hands-on work.”

Larry Portaro, director of FirstBuild, agreed the hackathon gives students a chance to get their hands dirty and apply what they learn in class.��

“It’s a great opportunity to work with other passionate makers and enthusiasts to co-create next generation home appliances with the support of our microfactory and access to our tools,” he said.��

No specific experience or background is required to participate. Hackathon contestants can , and sponsorship information is .

What does the city of the future look like?

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Well, it’s smart. Really smart — sort of like the students who participated in the DerbyHacks hackathon this past weekend.��

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More than 100 hackers spent 36 straight hours at the University of Louisville Engineering Garage, 1960 Arthur St., developing creative software and hardware along the smart cities theme. ����

Some hacks were practical, some whimsical. One team taught Amazon’s Alexa smart assistant to play chess, while others used open data to create grocery lists or map the best places to buy a home, accounting for crime rates and other factors.����

“We saw lots of great people making lots of great projects,” said DerbyHacks director, Shayne Hemminger. “My personal favorite hack involved trying to emulate old vector display video games.”��

There’s a full list of projects and winners��, on the DerbyHacks website.��

The second annual hackathon was organized by University of Louisville students, with help from outside organizations.��

“Derbyhacks was a great success, it took a lot of effort from a lot of people to pull of this event,” said Sam Nwosu, a computer science and computer engineering graduate student and president of��,��the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) student chapter.��“I really enjoyed the smartdollhouse project and the newsforme project. Both were very creative and had a lot of work put in it.”��

The����sponsored the event, along with Humana Inc., KFC, the city’s Office of Performance Improvement and Innovation and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The UofL����was a partner, as were Major League Hacking, ACM and Linode.