What is the name of your team and why did you choose it?
Huskies with Accelerated Computing Kernels (HACKs)
This name is an homage to an old computing club at Northeastern that has since shut down.
Why do you think your team will have an edge in the event (what's your secret sauce)?
We have very varied backgrounds! Some of our members are more focused on Computer Science and Cloud, while others are much more focused on Hardware.
What have you done to prepare that makes your team unique?
We work really closely with graduate students in the research lab we are a part of in order to best prepare for our architecture.
What are you most looking forward to in the competition?
We're most excited to see the conference and all of the vendors. We have several new members that have never attended and will surely be impressed by the conference floor.
How long will it take you to get to Dallas?
It will take us around 4 hours to fly to Dallas, from Boston, MA. It will take around 3 hours for our members in California.
What do your team members do for fun?
For fun, our team likes to do side projects and learn about new topics. One of our team member even build his own keyboard from scratch!
If your team had a theme song, what would it be?
Our theme song is Don't Stop Believing by Journey because we feel that staying positive is so important even when we face difficult challenges.
Can you share an interesting fact about your team?
We prepared for the competition while a third of our team was in California! If we can get through that we can get through anything.