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The MATLAB Flipbook Mini Hack contest has concluded! During the 4 weeks, over 600 creative animations have been created. We had a lot of fun and a great learning experience! Thank you, everyone!
Now it’s the time to announce week 4 winners. Note that grand prize winners will be announced shortly after we validate votes on winning entries.
Realism:
Holiday & Season:
Abstract:
Cartoon:
Congratulations, weekly winners!We will reach out to you shortly for your prizes.
Have you marveled at the breathtaking, natural-looking animations crafted by the creative minds in the Flipbook Mini Hack contest? Think of @Tim, @Jenny Bosten, and @Zhaoxu Liu / slandarer- their work is nothing short of extraordinary.
So, what's their secret? Adam Danz, a developer in the MATLAB Graphics and Charting team and a top community contributor, has graciously unveiled the mysteries in his latest blog post - "Creating natural textures with power-law noise: clouds, terrains, and more." The post offers simple, step-by-step instructions and code snippets, empowering you to grasp these enchanting techniques effortlessly.
Check it out and we hope it sparks your creativity and serves as a wellspring of inspiration. With only 3 days remaining before the contest draws to a close, it's time to dive into the code and let your imagination soar!
In Week 3, we reached the 400-animations milestone! Let’s work together to achieve the 500-animations goal!
During the last week of the contest, we strongly encourage you to inspire your colleagues, classmates, or friends to vote. Voters will also have the opportunity to win a MATLAB T-shirt.
Mini Hack Winners - Week 3
Math, Physics, or Science explanation:
Most creative remix:
40:
Math is beautiful:
Mashup (Combined themes):
Jr / balloons IV (40 & multi-entry story)
Nature:
Holidays:
Congratulations, winners!
In week 4, we’d love to see more entries in the following categories:
  • Holidays:
  • Seasons:
  • Abstract:
  • Mashup (mixed categories)
A gentle reminder that you have a direct impact on the next generation of animation tools in MATLAB! Don’t forget to share your thoughts and ideas with us.
What amazing animations can be created with no more than 2000 characters of MATLAB code? Check out our GALLERY from the MATLAB Flipbook Mini Hack contest.
Vote on your favorite animations before Dec. 3rd. We will give out MATLAB T-shirts to 10 lucky voters!
Tips: the more you vote, the higher your chance to win.
Just in two weeks, we already have 300 entries and 2,000 votes! We are so impressed by your creative styles, artistic talents, and ingenious programming techniques.
Now, it’s time to announce the weekly winners!
Mini Hack Winners - Week 2
Time & Space:
Trees:
Cartoon:
Symbolism:
Realism:
Fractal:
Multi-Entry Stories:
Explanatory:
Light:
MATtropolis:
Congratulations! Each of you won your choice of a T-shirt, a hat, or a coffee mug. We will contact you after the contest ends.
New categories for Week 3!
  • 40: MathWorks will celebrate its 40th Anniversary in 2024. You will have opportunities to win special prizes!
  • Most creative remix
Categories we’d love to see more entries in
Finally, just a reminder that you have a direct impact on the next generation of animation tools in MATLAB! Don’t forget to share your thoughts and ideas with us.
Dear contest participants,
Happy Friday! I am thrilled to share some exciting news with you. Cleve Moler, the father of MATLAB, has just published a captivating blog post dedicated to our outstanding Flipbook Mini Hack contest!
In his blog post, Cleve expresses his genuine admiration for the multitude of creative styles, artistic talents, and ingenious programming techniques that have been showcased throughout the contest. What's even more remarkable is that he handpicked some of his personal favorites! You don't want to miss this opportunity to see what Cleve has to say.
But that's not all! Your exceptional animations have sparked immense interest among the MathWorks teams. This means you have a direct impact on the next generation of animation tools in MATLAB! We value your thoughts and ideas, so please don't hesitate to share them with us.
Let's keep up the phenomenal work in the remaining two weeks, and together, we'll continue to push the boundaries of creativity and innovation.
Wishing you all an incredible weekend ahead!
Enthusiastically yours,
Chen
In just one week, we have about 200 amazing animations! We see many creative and compelling animations and more importantly a lot of FUN!
Now, let the voting begin! Vote on the animations you love. Also, share them with your friends, classmates, or colleagues. Show the world the beauty of mathematics!
Mini Hack Winners - Week 1
You probably can imagine how hard it is to pick the winners, given so many awesome entries there are! We came up with several categories:
Landscape:
Trees:
Illusion:
Cartoon:
MATropolis:
Geometry:
Congratulations to the winners! Each of you won your choice of a T-shirt, a hat, or a coffee mug. We will contact you after the contest ends.
Finally, we encourage all of you to share your experiences, thoughts, and feedback in our new contest discussions channel!
We reached the 100 animations milestone in less than 3 days! We are thrilled to see so many creative entries and talented members learning from each other.
Note that this contest is not just for experts. People with all skill levels can participate, improve their MATLAB skills, and have fun!
We have created new resources and tips for you to get started.
  1. Contest introductory video. The 3-minute video provides you with a quick introduction to how the contest works and how to create a simple animation.
  2. Animations blog post. The post demonstrates some coding techniques that can make your animations easier.
  3. AI Chat Playground. This is a new community app we just released. You can leverage the Generative AI tool to write initial draft MATLAB code or modify existing one.
  4. Get ideas from previous Mini Hack contests. There is a large gallery of amazing images, which provide you with ideas and code to start with.
  5. Remix is highly encouraged. Learning from others is the most effective way to learn. Make some SMALL changes and see what it would look like.
Check out our 100th animation by Tim. Isn't it amazing?
We look forward to seeing more of you joining us and having more fun!
The 2023 community contest - MATLAB Flipbook Mini Hack - starts today on Nov. 6th!
Participants across all skill levels are welcome to join! You can participate by creating a new animation or remixing an existing one with up to 2,000 characters of MATLAB code.
Contest Tips:
  1. Before you start, we highly recommend you check out the two examples - Bouncing and Spinning - to understand how the contest works.
  2. Share your thoughts, ask questions, or connect with others in our contest discussion channel.
Note that the first week (Nov. 6th, 2023, ~ Nov. 12th, 2023) is for creating entries only. Voting does not begin until the second week.
We look forward to seeing your creative work. Let the contest begin!
You are invited to join our 2023 community contest – MATLAB Flipbook Mini Hack! This year’s contest revolves around creating interesting animations using MATLAB.
Whether you are a seasoned MATLAB user or just getting started, this contest offers a fantastic opportunity to showcase your skills, learn from others, and engage with the vibrant MATLAB Central community.
Timeframe
This contest runs for 4 weeks from Nov. 6th to Dec. 3rd.
How to play
  • Create a new animation or remix an existing one with up to 2,000 characters of code.
  • Simply vote on the animations you love!
Prizes
You will have opportunities to win compelling prizes, including Amazon gift cards, MathWorks T-shirts, and virtual badges. We will give out both weekly prizes and grand prizes.
Check out the gallery and vote on the animations you like.
The MATLAB Central Community team
Chen Lin
Chen Lin
Last activity on 16 Oct 2023

I'm in a community conference in Boston today and see what snacks we get! The organizer said it's a coincidence, but it's definitly a good idea to have them in our MathWorks community meetings.
AI
22%
Wireless Connectivity and Radar
4%
Autonomous Systems and Robotics
15%
Cloud, Enterprise, and DevOps
2%
Algorithms and Data Analytics
17%
Modeling and Simulation
36%
179 votes
In our community poll ‘Which MathWorks resource is most helpful to you while learning MATLAB?’, Documentation is listed as the most helpful resource by 47% of respondents. However, it’s also worth noting that there is tons of information in the documentation. When you want to learn a topic or get quick reference, a cheat sheet would be very useful and save you time!
We’d like to share with you 9 MATLAB Cheat Sheets for Data Science and Machine Learning! These cheat sheets let you find just the right command for the most common tasks for your data science or machine learning projects.
Check it out and let us know your thoughts.
Definitely not
29%
Probably not
15%
Neutral
11%
Yes, somewhat
18%
Yes, definitely
20%
Not sure
6%
4598 votes
For Q&A
17%
For programming tasks
27%
For writing
9%
For fun
26%
Other use-case not mentioned here
3%
What's ChatGPT?
17%
4555 votes
MATLAB users come to Cody to learn MATLAB and the best way to learn is to learn from other community users. However, when you tried to see all solutions, you saw a message that you had to solve a new problem to unlock all the solutions or submit a solution of a smaller size. This is very confusing and we have been hearing this pain point from users.
Today, the Cody team is pleased to announce that players are able to see all solutions to a problem once they solve it correctly.
After solving a problem, you will see a button that says ‘View Community’s Solutions’, which will bring you to the list of all solutions.
Note that this is our first step in facilitating the learning aspect of Cody. We are actively working on improving the solutions list, so your input is valuable to us. Please let us know your comments or suggestions.
Every year, we show our appreciation to the top contributors by awarding two types of annual badges: Most Accepted badge and Top Downloads badge.
Most Accepted badge goes to the top 10 contributors whose answers received the most acceptances. Top downloads badge goes to the top 10 contributors with the most downloaded submissions.
In 2022, the recipients for Most Accepted are: @Walter Roberson, @Voss, @Star Strider, @Torsten, @Image Analyst, @Matt J, @KSSV, @Jan, @Stephen23, and @DGM.
Congratulations and thank you again for your outstanding contribution in 2022!
4 weeks of contests is fun but intense. Next, we recommend 3 things to do as warm-down exercises.
To make future contests better and more appealing to you, we created a 1-minute survey to understand your experience. Your feedback is critical to us!
2. Read 2022 Mini Hack Content Analysis blog post by Dave Bulkin
Dave Bulkin is a developer on the MATLAB Graphics and Charting Team. In the Blog post, @Dave B not only examines the code behind the leading entries, but also introduces you to some new visualization techniques.
Matt Tearle is from MathWorks Training Services Team. @Matt Tearle created this problem group to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Cody and the 2022 T20 World Cup (which happened to occur at the same time). Note that the problems can be done without the knowledge of cricket.
Thank you in advance and hope to see you in 2023!
The 2022 community contests have concluded! During the 4 weeks, we hope you had a lot of fun and learned some MATLAB skills. Together, we've achieved amazing milestones:
  • 500+ entries and 5,000+ votes created in the Mini Hack 2022 contest.
  • 100,000+ solutions submitted in Cody 10th Anniversary contest
  • 2,000+ participants in both contests
Now, it's time to announce weekly winners and grand prize winners!
Mini Hack - Pick of the MATLAB Graphics Team
We invited the MATLAB Graphics team, the authors of the MATLAB functions used in every entry, to be our Mini Hack judges. Here are their picks in 3 categories:
  • Our Top 3:
Rising Hand by Augusto Mazzei
Object used: fill; Judge comments: Clever code, nice metaphor, kind comments
Object used: patch (via VOXview); Judge comments: Very pretty, looks like it could be in a video game
Monocular rivalry by Jenny Bosten
Object used: Image; Judge comments: We spent a too much time trying to figure out what this illusion was doing to our brains
  • Clever use of Charts:
Object used: Bar3; Judge comments: Cute! Nice fireworks!
Ship by Shanshan Wang
Object used: histogram2; Judge comments: We didn't realize there was a ship in the flow data set
A fish for fun by Shanshan Wang
Object used: plot; Judge comments: Nifty and very different from other entries.
Colorful Fibonacci Spiral #3 by Basil Imoberdorf
Object used: scatter; Judge comments: Overlapping markers make for a very cool tunnel-like effect
  • Things we still loved:
Sandstone by Tim
Object used: image; Judge comments: Domain Warping FTW
Jellyfish by Tim
Object used: surface; Judge comments: Clever use of transparency
Congratulations and you should be very proud of yourself! It's a huge achievement that your entry is recognized by the MATLAB Graphics team!
Mini Hack - special category for Week 4
Our Week 4 special category is ‘Holiday’. The winner is Christmas snowman by Simon Thor
Mini Hack - grand prize winners
After an intensive (and very time-consuming) review of votes on winning entries, we have finalized the list of grand prize winners. Huge congratulations! We appreciate the time and effort you spent and the awesome entries you created. Each of you won an Amazon gift card.
Anton Kogios, Brandon Caasenbrood, KARUPPASAMYPANDIYAN M, Teodo, Jenny Bosten, MvLevi, Abdullah Caliskan, Stewart Thomas, Jonas Schlatter, and Tim Davis
Cody 10th Anniversary - surprise prize for 28-day streak winners
We are thrilled to see that 37 players have built a streak of 28 days! Coming back every day to solve problems is an incredible achievement. We decided to show our appreciation by awarding a surprise prize to those 37 players. Congratulations! Each of you will get a MathWorks T-shirt.
Christian Schröder, Stefan Abendroth, Mohammed, Victoria, Vasileios Pasialis, Gerardo Domínguez Ramírez, HH, Anton Kogios, Lizhi Zhu, Marco Fuscà, Armando Longobardi, Monica, Rithik KRT, Ayman, Teodo, Lincoln Poon, Elijah Keifert, siranjeevi gurumani, kazuyoshi kouno, Ryan Koh, Manuela Kaiser, Mehmet OZC, Dyuman Joshi, KOTHAPALLI SRI BRINDA, Gergely Patay, abyss, Takumi, Keita Abe, Petr Cerny, Shubham Shubham, Meredith, Andrew K, Atsushi Ueno, Peter Orthmann, Armando Longobardi, Chuang Tao, and David Romero
Cody 10th Anniversary winners – Week 4
The top 3 players for solving the most problems in week 4 are Christian Schröder, Gerardo Dominguez Ramirez, and Stefan Abendroth, Congratulations! Each of you won an Amazon gift card.
Week 4 lucky winners are Qingrui Liu and Basant Ale.
Cody 10th Anniversary winners – grand prize winners
We know how hard it is to be a top-10 leader in the contest leaderboard! It requires a huge time commitment and advanced MATLAB skills. Congratulations! Each of you will win an Amazon gift card.
Christian Schröder, Stefan Abendroth, Mohammed, Victoria, Vasileios Pasialis, Gerardo Domínguez Ramírez, HH, Anton Kogios, Lizhi Zhu, and Marco Fuscà
Lucky voters and participants
Thank you for your participation in our 2022 contests. You don’t need to be on the top of the leaderboards to win. As we announced, we would give out 20 MathWorks T-shirts to lucky voters and participants of the 2 contests.
Ismail Bera Altan, Robin Stolz, Michael Mellin, Kellan Smith, Neha Shaah, Siranjeevi gurumani, Paul Villain, Andrew Horchler, Meg Noah, Saurabh Chaudhary, Pakize erdogmus, Godfrey Ojerheghan, Selena Mastrodonato, Damir Rasic, Thomas Kjeldsen, Meredith, John Noah Ramiterre, Patience Oliveira, Panda, and Sujeet Kumar Choudhary
On behalf of the MATLAB Central community team, we thank you for joining our celebration of the MATLAB Central community 2022 contests. We hope you enjoyed these contests and look forward to seeing you in next year’s contests.
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