Huskie Hackers, a student organization at NIU, strives for a unique team-oriented experience to improve the technical and soft skills of its members, providing experience and opportunities needed for future application in professional fields. The Hackers engage in a variety of events, such as their weekly meetings to practice and prepare for hacking events like Hackathons and Game Jams. They continue to cultivate a competitive, dedicated culture that simultaneously produces an environment of growth and teamwork that contributes to meaningful projects and memorable experiences.

The Hackers had the opportunity to participate in multiple hacking events during the 2025-2026 year. Back in September, the Hackers partook in the Midnight Hackathon where they used Midnight’s company software to create a project on personal data protection. Our Hackers spent hours developing their submission, while also navigating the new tools proved to them. In the end, they created Secret Scheduler Pro, which allows for building administration to get their needed information for check-ins, but keeps workers’ data secure and private. And for their first hackathon, for all involved, they all thought it was a great experience and gave a jolt of energy to start the year.

Hoping lightning strikes twice, the second hackfest for the team was the Major League Hacking’s Open Source Hackfest in October. In this event, the Hackers took the Air Draw project, developed by Alum Studio member Nikhil Kethineni, with inspiration from Google’s 2016 Halloween Doodle, and created an interactive ghost-battling experience where players can sketch shapes on the screen to defeat the ghosts. In this hack, they had to learn how to work with the existing code of the project, but they were able to ride the lightning and identify where they could make their own creative, fun twist. They even have a live demonstration of the game.

They say the third time’s the charm, even though our Hackers had luck with the first two hack events, in November, the team did their first Mini Jame Gam. Within the weekend, the Hackers had to create a game from bare code that went along with the theme “Explosion” with a required “Box” item. In the end, the team created a game where users play as a caveman battling a bear using a microwave that explodes, which you must load with rats that scurry around you. As the game progresses, the levels get increasingly more challenging and introduce more exciting attacks. And if this combined prehistoric-future fun is of interest, give the game a play: Rat Go Boom!.

The Huskie Hackers were really hitting their stride by this point, and in February, they had the opportunity to travel to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) to take part in Hackillinois 2026, their first in-person hack event. Our team competed in the Caterpillar- Best AI Inspection Track, where teams set out to design a tool that aids vehicle inspection with thoughtful AI integration. Our Hackers developed an app that allows inspectors to conduct manual inspections digitally, using an AI system to analyse past inspection data and provide estimated timelines for part replacement in the future, but still emphasized the importance of human inspections and expertise. The Huskie Hackers had another incredible time in this engaging event, and they are so proud of their Devpost submission.

To wrap up the semester, the Huskie Hackers finished with the AI Hackfest from MLH in April. The team had to make an application that used AI and that was the only requirement. The team came up with The AI Accessibility Trancriber, an application that would transcribe video lectures with AI to help students with disabilities. Although the product was not fully finished, they still submitted on Devpost.

Overall it was a fantastic year and the team learned so much about hackathons and game jams. They hope to bring more people next year and grow the club further to continue participating in events.