Eager to build on the momentum in New York’s burgeoning startup community, the hackNY program offers college students from across country a taste of the city’s tech scene. The program, started some 18 months ago, is led by co-founders Evan Korth, faculty liaison for technology entrepreneurship at NYU, and Chris Wiggins, associate professor in the department of applied physics and applied mathematics at Columbia University. In includes competitions that push participants to build new technology products in a single weekend, as well as a summer program to get students’ feet wet working with local startups. Korth says hackNY’s mission is out to bring together the next generation of hackers.
HackNY held its most recent hackathon in October, and Korth hosted the Nov. 2 NY Tech Meetup where the winners and others demoed their ideas.
In a recent interview, Korth discussed hackNY’s goal of creating a network of young technologists—as well as veterans of the tech scene—who can mentor one another and potentially work with local startups.
Xconomy: How does hackNY introduce college students to the city’s tech community?
Evan Korth: We have a summer fellowship program, where for 10 weeks students from around the country live together in the NYU dorms. By day, they work at various startups around the city. And on some evenings we have a pedagogical series where they meet some great
