"We're so excited to be hosting the first iteration of Cubstart: Introduction to Building Apps DeCal! This course is run by our student org: Cal Hacks. We’re known for putting on the world’s largest collegiate hackathon here at Berkeley every fall. After running Cal Hacks for a few years, we realized that Cal Hacks (and hackathons in general) can be pretty inaccessible to beginners. That's why in 2017, we launched Cubstart - a 2-weeks-long workshop series meant to take those with little to no programming experience and get them ready for Cal Hacks. Although we unfortunately can’t hold an in-person hackathon this semester, we’re turning Cubstart into this new DeCal! This course is a culmination of all of the things we wished we knew going into our first hackathons. I sincerely hope that you have as much fun taking this course as we had making it!"
— Saahil Chadha, Cubstart 7.0 Lead Director, Cal Hacks
We're making these materials public because we strongly believe that education should be as accessible as possible, and that open sharing and public discourse will help us improve the quality of this education for our future students. If you have feedback or suggestions, please feel free to email us at [email protected]
So, what’s Cubstart? It’s the beginner’s guide to hackathons! In addition to learning and familiarizing yourself with iOS and Web development skills, we are also focused on the soft skills that are part of hackathons. Namely building teams, ideation, and working with peers towards a common goal. Additionally, to help simulate the advantages of a hackathon - the abundance of resources and wide network - we’re offering technical workshops, as well as peer mentorship to ensure that you have the support that you need to be successful. In effect, we want to give you all the chance to soak in technical skills and all that a hackathon has to offer, to leave you feeling ready to take on the same challenges in a traditional timed hackathon.
📢 Piazza
🎓 bCourses
Enroll in Cubstart through CalCentral
If you join our DeCal, you’ll attend an hour-and-a-half weekly lecture and a two-hour weekly lab. We’re offering two lab sections for students on the iOS development track and two sections for those on the web development track. Beyond lectures and labs, your main homework will be a semester-long project.
Here you will find the Youtube playlists containing all the lectures and labs. These are currently under construction and being updated as we go along the semester!
The labs that you will be needing can be found down below. Click and expand the page to start working!
If you need to make-up a lab, you can answer the questions/upload files onto the bCourses assignment for that lab.