DeltaHacks celebrates 11 years of empowering students to innovate and create positive change across various fields through hackathon
On Jan. 11 and 12, 2025, DeltaHacks hosted its 11th annual hackathon for change in the Peter George Centre for Living and Learning, dedicated to empowering students to create positive change in their communities through projects in health care, sustainability, education and technology.
This year, approximately 500 people participated in the 24-hour hackathon, developing innovative projects while engaging in networking opportunities and workshops. After the event, participants presented their projects the following day to a panel of judges who evaluated them based on social impact, technical skill, originality and presentation.
DeltaHacks organizes four main hacking challenges, each focusing on a broad category such as best environmental hack, best productivity hack, best health hack and best community-building hack. Participants are encouraged to create projects that align with these categories.
Additionally, DeltaHacks hosted sponsor challenges, where sponsors organized specific hacks. In an interview, Parisha Nizam, co-president of DeltaHacks, mentioned that the National Society of Black Engineers and Procter & Gamble partnered on a challenge aimed at creating a financial app to help students in the Black community overcome biases when seeking financial assistance and resources.
In addition to the hackathon, DeltaHacks organized a variety of workshops, including sponsor-led sessions like the Dyson Fan Event, Apple Swift Challenge and an Introduction to Cohere workshop. Professional development opportunities were also offered, such as a Resume Roast and a guide to preparing a strong hackathon presentation. To foster community, DeltaHacks hosted fun activities, including a Fire Noodle challenge, karaoke night and late-night games.
Nizam highlighted that the hackathon kicked off with an opening ceremony featuring speeches from key sponsors, including Reserve Power, Swift, Manulife and Procter & Gamble, along with a performance by the McMaster Marching Band.
“Our team really worked hard on elevating the hacker experience. We worked hard on just making the overall organization better. I think our food choices were really good too. This year, we were also able to get an actual photo booth, where we had our own themed photo prints,” said Nizam.
Our team really worked hard on elevating the hacker experience. We worked hard on just making the overall organization better.
Parisha Nizam, Co-President
DeltaHacks
Nizam noted that DeltaHacks focuses on catering to the local community and collaborating with sponsors. According to Nizam, unlike many other hackathons that have a more general focus, DeltaHacks is specifically dedicated to creating positive social impact.
“We’ve seen people coming out of the hack saying they learned something new from the workshops they attended, or they gained new friendships, or they actually landed internships because of the sponsors that are there. There's a lot of opportunities for people to actually get something out of the hackathon while also having fun,” said Nizam.
We’ve seen people coming out of the hack saying they learned something new from the workshops they attended, or they gained new friendships, or they actually landed internships because of the sponsors that are there. There's a lot of opportunities for people to actually get something out of the hackathon while also having fun.
Parisha Nizam, Co-President
DeltaHacks
The project titled WhaleBeing won first place and the Dyson Innovation Challenge with their web app, which features a prediction model that maps how ship routes interact with blue whale habitats.
Nizam shared that, for the first time this year, DeltaHacks aimed to give back to the community by allowing the first-place winner to select a charity to receive a $500 donation. WhaleBeing chose to donate the funds to a whale conservation organization.
Nizam noted that while the hackathon is their main event, DeltaHacks encourages students to participate in club events and workshops held throughout the year. For more information, interested individuals can visit their Instagram page.
By: Andrew Mrozowski
Nestled away on the corner of King Street West and Paisley Avenue South lies a small storefront with kitchen accessories on display in the windows. Peering through, you are sure to see a cute boutique filled with cutlery, appliances and cookware. Only if you go into the store, will you find a functioning kitchen and breakfast bar tucked away in the back-right corner.
The Casual Gourmet has made its home in Westdale Village since 1997 but for the last three years, retail has only been part of the equation. Ever since co-owners Tannis Jarvis and Ilona Santa took over the business three years ago, they had a vision for the Casual Gourmet.
“We really wanted to have more than a retail store, we wanted a real interactive place with great experiences,” explained Jarvis.
[spacer height="20px"]Jarvis and Santa quickly saw the potential their Hamilton store had to offer and started to reach out to local chefs to host workshops. Since January 2017, over 84 different workshops have been held from ‘A Night in the Caribbean’ to ‘Knife Skills 101’. The Casual Gourmet will be hosting ‘Dinner with Jonny Blonde’ and ‘Winter Soups with the Burnt Tongue’ in the coming months.
“With Hamilton growing and having such a great food scene, we thought it would be great if we could bring in a lot of those Hamilton chefs to really offer those customers a neat experience. They all bring such a wealth of knowledge,” said Jarvis.
One of these chefs is award-winning pastry chef Maria Boyd of Cake & Loaf Bakery. Growing up in Germany, Boyd got her hands wet in the industry by working for a catering company. When she moved to Canada, she attended George Brown College for Baking and Pastry Arts and Management, completing a two-year certificate.
While making cakes, chocolates and running a flourishing business, Boyd realized one thing: she hated to work with chocolate. She didn’t know what her future held in store but was certain that chocolate wouldn’t be a part of it.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id="166" gal_title="The Casual Gourmet"]
Chef Boyd knew that the city of Toronto was too large for her to leave her mark. She turned her gaze towards a smaller city whose food culture was growing each day and where she could find a better sense of community.
Setting up shop just west of Hamilton’s downtown core, Boyd opened Cake & Loaf Bakery in 2011 and has quickly risen through the ranks as one of the city’s top bakeries. The following year, Chef Boyd started to ironically play around with chocolate and confections.
“I always try to get my hands dirty and learn something I’m not comfortable with. I always try to challenge myself,” said Boyd.
Honing her chocolate skills and developing a department for Cake & Loaf Bakery, Boyd pushed herself to become a well-rounded pastry chef but now found herself wanting to share her chocolate-making skills with others.
[spacer height="20px"]“I always wanted to do classes, but the bakery never had the space or time to hold them. [The Casual Gourmet] approached us to do evening classes which everyone always wants,” said Boyd.
Presenting her workshop, Chocolate Basics, Boyd taught attendees how to release their inner Willy Wonka by showing them how to temper chocolate, make ganache, truffles, caramel and provide ideas for some festive holiday treats to be shared with loved ones throughout the coming months.
“I want to inspire people to do something that they wouldn’t normally do, or for those who would, just to be able to give them some more things to think about,” said Boyd.
For Boyd, food is about challenging yourself to do something difficult. She went from hating chocolate to becoming a leading chocolatier within the city on the whim of wanting to push herself and accomplish more.
As everyone was gathered around the breakfast bar tucked away in the heart of Westdale village, watching Chef Boyd create a chocolate masterpiece, one could feel the sense of belonging and unity through the power of food. The Casual Gourmet will continue to bring the community together through a diverse range of workshops set for the new year.
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By: Daanish Kachalia and Ryan Veerasammy
Juggling an academic, social and personal life, it’s no wonder that many students, ourselves included, wish there were more hours in the day. For the past few weeks, we have been committed to maximizing each day — starting with waking up early. Starting our days at 6 a.m. has markedly improved our lives.
Leaving the house before the sun rises invokes a feeling like no other. It is extremely satisfying to succeed in the challenge of waking up early. As a result of our early wake-up time, we found that we were motivated to be more productive as we didn’t want to waste the effort it took to get out of bed.
Even though the initial step of waking up can be difficult, the rewards are invaluable. In order to take that first step, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were required.
Our intrinsic motivation consisted of researching the effects of waking up early as a student.
Texas University conducted a study where they found that students who classified themselves as “morning people” had a higher grade point average compared to the average student. A different study completed by Harvard University concluded that individuals who wake up early are more proactive and anticipate problems better.
Our extrinsic motivation stemmed from one another. We challenged each other that if we were not awake by 6 a.m., the person that woke up late would have to buy the other a coffee. By creating a competition, we were more motivated to complete the challenge.
One of the largest challenges in waking up early that we both encountered was restraining from pressing the snooze button. To combat this, we kept our alarms away from our beds so we were forced to get up when they went off in the morning.
Before starting this challenge, we both never had the time to eat breakfast. Now, we incorporated this meal into our everyday life. This has contributed towards a healthier lifestyle and an overall improved outlook for the day.
As the days pass, it is becoming easier to wake up earlier in the morning as our bodies are adjusting to this new routine. We have also noticed reduced stress levels as we can take additional time to complete tasks without feeling rushed or pressured.
We encourage the students of McMaster University to take on the challenge of waking up early. From our experience, we can assure that accomplishing this challenge on a continuous basis will undoubtedly affect your life in a positive way!
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By Owen Angus-Yamada
It’s back to school and outlooks for the 2018-2019 semester are sure to be varied. As the masses wait in line at the campus store for freshly pressed textbooks or shuffle through the McMaster University Student Centre crowds, it can be assured that many are already preoccupied with their grade point standing, the bane of their existence or, other side of the coin, questioning the real purpose of their classes and distancing themselves from their academics.
We are in a society that is afraid of failure and drawn to convenience. When we are faced with a challenge we often take the one of the two previously mentioned approaches: stress out — not the kind we get before a presentation or performance, more of the mind crimpling, time consuming variety — or give up; both leading to the same result: under-performing and having contempt for the initial challenge. This, however, is a choice and does not always have to be the case.
When we are positive and passionate about a problem we invest more time and energy into it. We may fail often but have the enthusiasm to learn from those mistakes as we move forward. This is what happens when, for example, you play guitar and want to learn a new song. You may butcher the same riff over and over and over, but you aren’t biting your nails and freaking out about not being able to do it right now or smashing your guitar and yelling “What’s the point? Life is pain.”
Although the latter is pretty edgy, both stressing out and giving up yield little results in the learning and development department, but by taking the failures and continuing to try, eventually you learn it.
I’m not saying that school is the same as guitar, or that you even practice guitar to begin with, but learning lecture material and learning a new song are both challenges that require you to be persistent with your approach and are affected by your outlook of the situation.
If you are pumped up and prepared to do some serious work this year then keep on rolling and let me get the heck out of your way but if you’re stressed or pessimistic already about the year than hears some suggestions.
If you’re stressed about your marks, try changing your approach and make getting a deep understanding of the material the priority. Get involved outside of the classroom in a way that you can apply what you are learning for better material understanding and retention. If you are resenting class because it’s boring or too easy, then maybe its time you step out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself with additional extracurriculars or try new classes where you are excited and interested in the material being taught. Change your approach to become passionate about your education, learning and development and the rest will fall in line.
McMaster allows for plenty of opportunities to vary how you approach your learning, development and overall university experience, even going as far to offer a new Personal Interest Course which allows you to try different, potentially more difficult electives, without fear of them penalizing the ever-precious GPA. It is also a hotbed of clubs, groups, competitions and societies available for the people who want to become more involved or those who want to explore other interests. It may not be easy and you may even mess up or fail a few times but that’s sort of the point.
So, if you find yourself pulling hair over midterms or endlessly binging the ever-alluring Netflix because you just can’t bring yourself to study or go to class, remember that you have a choice. You can take the red pill and keep taking the path of least resistance and subsequently the path of least results, or take the blue pill and find out just how deep this whole concept of trying a new way to approach for your learning and development really goes.
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