For a day, geek is chic
Often, college students party after final exams end. In CS50, Harvard’s introductory computer science course-turned-campuswide phenomenon, the final is a party. Roughly 1,000 student hackers and their guests turned out Monday for the CS50 Fair, drawn into the basement of the Northwest Science Building by a trail of red, yellow, and blue balloons, and the thumping pulse of full-volume techno music. Amid a carnival atmosphere replete with popcorn, small mountains of candy, flying stress balls, and dozens of laptops — and what appeared to be enough extension cords to circumnavigate the globe — more than 700 students in CS50 (and its Harvard Extension School counterpart, E-52) displayed their mobile apps, websites, and other creations. While the CS50 final projects only account for 10 percent of students’ grades, the assignments are limited by not much more than students’ ambitions and imaginations. “All we ask is that you build something of interest to you, that...