A hacker displays his sticker collection at the start of the TreeHacks hackathon. Each year Stanford University hosts over 1,000 college students from around the country where they will compete for 36 hours straight to produce what could become the next “big idea”. 
Stairs to the second floor of the Huang Engineering Center. 
Stanford cheerleaders and marching band entertain students in line to enter the hackathon. 
Stanford cheerleaders and marching band entertain students in line to enter the hackathon. 
Students arrive at TreeHacks which is part of the Major League Hacking network of collegiate hackathons. 
Attendees get an early start at the opening orientation. 
Opening orientation presentation. 
A table of stickers and coupons donated by sponsors. 
A photo of Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the Internet, depicted on a display case in the Huang Engineering Center. 
An array of 3D printers inside the Product Realization Lab. 
A team of students settles in for a night of hacking. 
A hacker’s workstation. 
A hacking team spreads out on the floor. 
A hacking team hard at work. 
Refreshments provided by sponsor Red Bull. 
Computer huddle. 
The Red Bull “Escape Room”. 
A team of students hacks a webcam to detect the presence of weapons in schools. 
An exhausted hacker sleeps face down at their workstation. 
Focused hacking. 
Hackers working on stairs. 
A sign posted on the ground outside the hackathon. 
A student works to attach face detection hardware to a Nerf gun. 
A student’s workstation. 
A student works on his hack. 
Student teams hacking in the main workspace. 
Overnight slippers given out to attendees. 
Students take turns petting an emotional support dog brought in to relieve stress. 
Students take turns petting an emotional support dog brought in to relieve stress. 
Students take turns sleeping while their teammates work through the night. 
A hacker tests virtual reality goggles used in her project. 
Students demo their final hacks to judges. 
A midnight lightsaber battle erupts thanks to sponsor Disney. 
A midnight lightsaber battle erupts thanks to sponsor Disney. 
Students demo their final hacks to judges. 
Students demo their final hacks to judges. 
Josh Grace, Raymond Chau and Bob Lakensi demo their Nerf Turret hack. 
Students demo their final hacks to judges. 
A hacker examines the lego computer created by Sergey Brin and Larry Page to power the first version of the Google search engine while the two were students at Stanford University. 
Students demo their final hacks to judges. 
Students demo their final hacks to judges. 
Students demo their final hacks to judges. 
Two exhausted hackers sleep through the final hours. 
Two students take a break during the close of the hackathon.
TreeHacks: Silicon Valley’s Largest Hackathon
Over the course of 36 hours, more than a thousand students compete to invent the next “big idea”.
ON rainy Friday evening, more than 1,200 students from colleges and universities around the world arrived on campus for TreeHacks–the largest collegiate hackathon held each year in Silicon Valley. The term hackathon comes from a mash-up of the words hack and marathon. Hack, referring, to exploratory computer programing, and marathon, referring to a race. The purpose of a hackathon is to create the hyper-focused, creative environment that produces the technical innovation and products that Silicon Valley is known for. If that sounds like trying to catch lightning in a bottle, that’s exactly what it is.