E-waste racing hackathon Formula Null brings KW community together, bringing UW alumni’s visions to life

Sprawled on the basement floor was a race track: cardboard barriers with orange, black, and white balloons which shaped curves and twists for the vehicles waiting at the start line. The announcer through his mic, “Three, two, one!”  A toaster, an arcade board, a batmobile, and even a princess castle — they all spurred with wheels that began to turn. Drivers paced eagerly at the sidelines with controllers in hand as each wheeled creation made its way through the course. On the evening of June 1, Formula Null’s Grand Prix began. 

Formula Null was a two-day hardware hackathon that began May 31. Over the weekend, hackers tinkered with electronic waste (e-waste) components to transform them into racing vehicles. It took place at the Startup Barn, also known as the Builders Club, a coworking community space in downtown Kitchener courtesy of Jesse Rodgers.

The event was organized over a span of two weeks by two UW alumni Maisha Thasin and Daniel Liu, who studied mathematics and computer science, respectively. The idea first began with a silly idea: “One day, I thought it’d be funny to put wheels on my laptop, and I did it. It turned out to be really funny, so I wanted more people to do it and that’s when the idea popped into my head,” Liu said. They noticed that in other typical hackathons, there was either a lack of hardware or strict restrictions. In hopes of cultivating an environment that allows for exploration and shenanigans, they decided to run with an electronics racing league. “We wanted this to be very silly, whimsical… just like a very fun event,” Thasin said. 

The two had former experience hosting a Minecraft hackathon for participants to enjoy crafting together. This time, however, the turnout was much higher, at 107 sign ups, 82 checked-in hackers, and 21 teams. Twelve of these teams had working vehicles to participate in the Grand Prix race. Hackers were mainly made up of UW undergraduate students, but there were also UW graduate students, UW alumni, and high school students. 

Hackers were provided with e-waste such as old ThinkPad laptops. Thasin and Liu went through the recycling bins at EIT, finding power supplies. They went to friends to ask for broken appliances, and received a broken blender. “We asked anyone we could get. I think most [participants] brought their own [e-waste] because they had an idea of what they wanted to make before the event,” Thasin said. “We love the whole ‘turning e-waste into raceable cars,’ it’s a very funny concept. But it’s very cool what you can do by just reusing components,” she said.

On top of this, an abundant amount of hardware was available at the hackathon. From 3D printers, a soldering station, cut-up motherboards, Raspberry Pis, Arduinos, breadboards, old RC car wheels, and filaments, multiple tables were filled with tech. 

Thasin emphasized the help of the community they received to host the hackathon: “There’s so many things that we could not have done without our friends. We borrowed so many things and [received] so much help… and some of them couldn’t even come to the event. We’re very, very thankful for them.” From getting rides to Home Depot, borrowing tech, to designing stickers, their connections made the event possible. Aside from friends, they borrowed leftover hardware from Hack the North and were able to get loans from the Kitchener-Waterloo Library of Things, even though they didn’t have a subscription. On the first night, Thasin invited the UW DJ club to set the mood with free rein. Even the location, owned by Rodgers, was a case of community helping one another. “He’s very active in the community — he’s a big advocate for Socratica. So when we asked him, ‘Can we do this very silly thing?’ he [was] like, ‘Sure’ and he just gave us the key [on] the first day,” Thasin said. 

However, the event wasn’t without dedication and grit from Thasin and Liu. Working full time, this was an “after 5 p.m.” project for Thasin. They were spending out of their own pocket, up until they received confirmation from their largest sponsor, Shopify, on the first morning of the event. “I think we believed that this could be something special, so we did it anyway, even if we did not get confirmation until the day of Saturday,” Thasin said. 

The result was a weekend full of learning, exploration, and fun. There were participants who came in with no hardware experience, yet left with a running vehicle and even an award. “That’s [a] pretty insane learning curve for them [the Trash Mechanics team], and it’s all because they wanted to make a toaster run, which is so funny,” Thasin said. “I think we also attracted a lot of people who were very into what they do for the sake of doing,” she continued. This was the same hope Liu had for the event: “I feel like people just need to realize that you can just build fun things. Sometimes they can just be like a Barbie castle mounted on a ThinkPad lid with wheels. I hope to encourage people to do things for the fun of it rather than for any particular purpose. [Do it] just because you enjoy it.” 

On the evening of the second day, hackers and spectators joined at the basement where each vehicle lapped twice around the track to measure their best times. From there, vehicles of four were grouped to race at the Grand Prix. The track was lively, with supportive cheers from the crowd and unending commentary from the announcer. The atmosphere intensified as vehicles collided and destroyed parts. Balloons popped, wheels fell, and an interesting, nasty smell arose as batteries melted. Some vehicles spun in circles, and some zipped past the curves. In all races, though, there was clearly passion and eager anticipation to see how the work they’ve done over the two days would translate at the race. 

“I think [these] very silly shenanigans [type] of events like this, the value is that you can make anything you put your mind to. We’re using that and creating these kinds of themed [buildathons],” Thasin said.

Volunteers and helpers: 

Ruxi, Casper, Abdul, Calvin, Jackie, Emily, David, Qin, Chauvin, Bonnie, Ryan, Kevin, Cindy 

1st place winners: 

The Batmobile, made by Anirudh Bharadwaj Vangara, Nengjia Li,  Alexander Li, Grant Ou 

2nd place winners: 

Ball Arc, made by Omer, Umad, Prashath, Moeez

3rd place winners: 

The Trash Mechanics, made by Jay, Karen, Haru, Emily, Natalie