It was a peak experience for Davis HackNights who welcomed several members of Zillow Group’s software engineering team this past Thursday night to the ASUCD Entrepreneurship Fund (EFund) and Davis Roots sponsored event. Three Zillow Group engineers brought their industry chops, Ohana’s Hawaiian BBQ, and company swag to share with about 40 undergraduates, mostly computer science and engineering majors. The speakers and the audience were on-point, as company and classroom assignments and e-mails were sure to be accumulating during the HackNighs event.
The evening started with Kelly Foreman, Zillow Group Campus Recruiter, taking a few minutes to describe the internships available for juniors and seniors at Zillow Group. Kelly shared the good news that a large portion of the San Francisco Zillow office was made up of UCD grads.
Robert Hsu started the tech portion of the event with a description of what it is like to code within a large company. He was mentored early in his career by a senior engineer who instilled in him the invaluable understanding of coding assets and technical debt. The former UCD grad explained how rushing to a coding solution could build up a backlog of technical fixes – debt.
Robert was followed by Ashish Subedy whose persistence and a refusal to fear the unknown got him the chance to work on Zillow’s mobile team without prior Android experience. Ashish was obviously not without technical achievement as he was eventually entrusted to be a key member of a team that reformatted Trulia’s Android analytics. “A lot of people depend on what you are building,” said Ashish, as he went on to explain the extensive quality assurance protocols in place at Zillow.
Iqbal Barikzai, who was destined to travel to LA later in the evening in preparation for a conference on improving Afghan American access to technology, talked about some of his recent work in support of the millions-per-day email system at Zillow. Iqbal was the final speaker of the evening and spent the majority of his time conveying the practical art of the technical resume. A good number of the audience had brought resumes to the event and were asking for further details.
ASUCD EFund Chair, Larry Feygin, along with EFund’s Aria Chang, Roxy Hoffman, Akhil Mathur, Jin Zhang had prepared the evenings venue. Scott Ragsdale, Davis Roots General Manager, hosted the event in the Hunt Boyer mansion. It was a sign of success that students were asking for the next event.
Davis HackNights’ success comes during a year when EFund funds were reduced from $5,000 to $500 due to a beleaguered ASUCD budget. Larry Feygin has provided dedicated leadership and provided a successful legacy for student entrepreneurship at UCD despite this budget shortfall.
EFund’s budget is almost entirely for undergraduate entrepreneurship grants. Ten teams competed this year and four were provided micro-grants and will be receiving mentorship and encouragement to participate in other local startup contests. You will likely see many of these startups participating in the Big Bang competition and other local and regional activity.
To build on the momentum of Davis HackNights, student groups like ASUCD’s EFund, the Computer Science Club, local incubators like Davis Roots and Area 52 will be supporting the Hack Davis student run hackathon this May 7th and 8th. The Hack Davis event, while separate, is closely aligned with Davis HackNights. Hack Davis will be Davis’s first major collegiate hackathon and it’s organizers are expecting 350 students. The hackathon will coincide with Whole Earth Day weekend which will make for a full set of ASUCD student sponsored community activity.
It means a lot to have a marquee company like Zillow Group join in support of ASUCD’s EFund HackNights and team up with the students. Zillow Group is highly regarded by the student body and everyone who attended was appreciative of the gift of professional time and event sponsorship.
About Zillow Group: The company’s bands focus on all stages of the home lifecycle: renting, buying, selling, financing and home improvement with the portfolio: Zillow, Trulia, StreetEasy, HotPads and Naked Apartments. Zillow Group is committed to empowering consumers with unparalleled data, inspiration and knowledge around homes, and connecting them with the right local professionals to help. In addition, Zillow Group works with tens of thousands of real estate agents, lenders and rental professionals, helping maximize business opportunities and connections to millions of consumers.
(This was a press release from Davis Roots)
