In the world of computers, the idea of hacking is met with various responses. Some look at hacking as a form of virtual terrorism and others look at hacking as an art form that can change the way computer systems and online media are used to enhance performance and usage of computers across the world. In a lot of ways, some hackers deserve to be lauded for their efforts.

A lot of hackers use their knowledge and abilities to alert corporations and software developers of bugs and holes in security programming. In this way, hackers are very useful to the safety of our personal and private data. Once a hole is discovered, the developers can go in and make a patch or rewrite a piece of code before the problem is discovered by malicious hackers.

That’s why University of Illinois students are hacking Facebook with permission. The Daily Illini has a story about how Facebook has set up a Hackathon at the university and a few others. What do Facebook developers hope to get out of this hacking? Some of the best Facebook features of the past few years:

“On Friday, students formed teams to work for 24 hours straight on hacks for new product ideas that could very well result in similar success. Hackathons are usually internal operations at Facebook where engineers get together to try and create innovative new products using the Facebook platform. It was at one of these hackathons that Facebook Video and other products such as Facebook Chat were invented.”

This kind of story proves how valuable that engineers can be in the landscape of the world, whether it is virtual or otherwise. While one Connecticut engineer is surveying an area for planning and zoning commissions, a computer engineer in California is inventing the next big social network.