Highway to Undercity

Highway to Undercity: Reviewing + Staffing

This summer I served on Undercity staff (Hack Club’s 4-day hardware hackathon at GitHub HQ, San Francisco) and as a project reviewer for Highway (the grant program that fed into Undercity). I personally reviewed 200+ individual projects. (everything from custom PCBs and weird controllers to custom 3D printers)

Undercity was the hackathon finale for Highway participants, where 166 teen makers from 19 countries built and demoed 75 hardware projects over 72 hours in GitHub HQ.

Featured films

We Hosted the Largest Hardware Hackathon (Undercity Doc)

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Between Highway grants and Undercity’s 72-hour build sprint, teens shipped dozens of awesome hardware projects!

Photos

Undercity sign (signed by all event goers)

A windows update prompt on a GitHub display

_{Not even GitHub is safe from Windows Popups lol…}

My Simple Undercity Project

While I didnt have too much time to build a full project at Undercity, I did manage to design a custom infinitely expandable and configurable console system. The system was designed similar to a Nintendo Switch, with a main console unit and attachable controllers. The console unit had a small screen and basic controls, while the attachable controllers could be swapped out for different configurations.

My Undercity console project - front view

My Undercity console project - side view

My Undercity console project - front again view

My Undercity console project and the soldering area I was running

I had actually gotten the retropie OS running on the console unit, but unfortunately I ran out of time to finish the controllers and fully assemble the project. I lost time and motivation after having numerous issues with my computer during design:

My Undercity console project - computer issue 1

My Undercity console project - computer issue 2

Despite these setbacks I was able to design the PCB sections of my project including the main controller board and the attachable joycon-style controllers.

My Undercity console project - MainBoard PCB

My Undercity console project - Joycon PCB

Not too many people were designing custom PCBs at Undercity, so I was also able to mill out the first PCB I ever made: my previously designed game console PCB project!

Some Specifics

Highway is Hack Club’s summer hardware program: ship projects, get funded, and collect points. Undercity is the invite-only, in-person 4-day finale at GitHub HQ where teams build and demo hardware in 72 hours (food + tools provided, sleep at HQ).

Highway site: https://highway.hackclub.com/
Undercity recap: https://undercity.hackclub.com/

Propose a modification on GitHub