Hacker Nation: StartUP FIU’s marketplace of ideas

Mhyanif Lozada | Entertainment Director

To stay ahead of the technological curve and foster innovation, StartUP FIU brings entrepreneurial minds together in Hacker Nation.

Hacker Nation is a roundtable event hosted by StartUP FIU that promotes open discussion among attendees of all academic disciplines. 

Held virtually this summer, meetings focus on presentations prepared by Robert Hacker, the director and co-founder of StartUP FIU. 

In addition, the club’s profile holds a list of articles posted by the StartUP FIU team, which are available to anyone and act as supplemental materials for the weekly discussions.

Hacker’s presentations feature concepts and theories about innovation in and out of the technological sector. For example, on Jan. 26, he defined creativity as combining components in new ways, and applied this definition to innovation. 

“Fundamental knowledge is math, physics, and philosophy… Changing those three leads to innovation,” said Hacker. 

He also posed that producing truly revolutionary products requires changing space, time and information beyond the three fundamentals.

Hacker recognized generative AI as a powerful tool for creating the components involved in innovation and even changing the way we think. 

“It’s been a long time since humans had a rival,” Hacker said about the quickly-improving AI technology.

The club held a meeting on Feb. 9 discussing how the medical sciences approach consciousness, citing anesthesiology as the key to understanding this aspect of the human mind.

Discussions also focus on honing skills like critical thinking and emotional intelligence and applying them in daily life. The document even lists an article on metaphysics, which Hacker specified as the intersection of the three fundamental concepts. 

Irene Ferradaz, director and manager of marketing and communications at StartUP FIU, explained that Hacker Nation functions as a self-directed, casual learning environment for students and the wider FIU community.  

“It’s a community of like-minded people–undergraduate and graduate students, alumni, faculty, and more–who are interested in talking about anything that’s new on the horizon,” said Ferradaz. 

Hacker Nation also aims to provide a well-balanced education by showing attendees content outside of a traditional curriculum, like mindfulness, objective reality and complexity science.

“Should the purpose of education just be to get a job at the finish line? You should also be able to speak intelligently on a variety of topics,” Ferradaz said.

“[College] is the opportunity to explore… Take advantage of this time.”

The StartUP FIU team met a need for FIU, an anchor institution that provides economic and intellectual resources to the community, to have a hub where undergraduate students could easily begin a path of entrepreneurship. 

Economics senior Khulyl O’Cof, who attended the Jan. 26 meeting, expressed that knowledge from established professionals is as important to innovation as new ideas. 

“Hacker himself is a beacon that passes on knowledge to young minds and gives them the space to be themselves and grow,” O’Cof said. 

O’Cof shares that Hacker Nation specifically helps students balance their chosen field of study with skills learned from one another through the club’s open discussion format. 

“At the same time that we learn from our focused tracks, we also group together,” O’Cof said.

“The most beautiful part of knowledge is seeking knowledge, and [Hacker Nation] teaches you to want to know more.”