Anyway, was it a hackathon? No, this was a build-a-thon. A few Arduinos and Atmel’s may have been used, but the majority of the projects were serious mechanical marvels. The teams had 72 hours to compete, with the very broad theme of “Serious Fun”.

And did they make some serious fun. From human-sized hamster wheels, to glass smashing recycling machines, and even an arcade style carnival game housed in a dumpster, not one team had a similar idea about Serious Fun. It was awesome.

While [Mike] and [Brian] weren’t able to make it this year (see their coverage last year), I made the drive down from Canada to see the competition – and I took some video along the way. Check it out.

In the end Team Detroitus took home the grand prize of $6,000 for their terribly unsafe but ridiculously fun Lunar Lander Tire Swing – though we prefer the name Flaming-Tire-Swing-of-Death. Good job guys!

…did we mention they’re planning on erecting it in some public park behind the recycling center? Oh Detroit. Don’t ever change. For more photos and info about the invent, check out the main page here.