In news that will no doubt make our Pittsburgh-based COO Sean Ammirati swell with local pride, the Carnegie Mellon University team D1W (couldn’t they think of a less geeky name) took the $10,000 first place prize in this week’s Yahoo Open Hack All Stars contest. (The team is pictured at left.) In 24 hours, the team produced a prototype file-sharing collaboration tool called Ruum.
The contest, held in New York City, brought back nearly 40 previous winners of earlier hack challenges. In addition to the cash, the winning team might also get a chance to receive more mentoring from Yahoo developers and possible office space and technical support too.
The judging panel included Mike Smith, Chief Digital Officer for Forbes; Shana Fisher from Highline Capital; Raymie Stata, Yahoo’s Chief Technology Officer; Kevin Doerr, Yahoo’s Vice President of Innovation; and Steve Douty, Yahoo’s Vice President of Applications and mobile product development.
There is an amusing infographic on the Yahoo hacks down through the years reproduced above (click to enlarge) that shows the number of pizzas and beverages consumed (nothing unusual in Red Bull beating out beer, given the marathon nature of these events). The youngest hacker was a 14 year old Indian teen, and the oldest was a 64 year old from London, both from the 2009 contest.
