From Flo-rida to MHacks, but I’m not a rapper.
An interview with Strap
Friday
So you went to MHacks and then you noticed the Strap table during the expo. Was there a reason you wanted to make an app for a smartwatch? — Strap
When I saw Strap’s table at the MHacks opening ceremony, I truly appreciated the design of their logo. I soon found out that their prize consisted of Pebble watches for the winning team. During Cyber Monday, I was seriously contemplating on buying a Pebble so I could create an application I had in mind. Pebble uses the first programing language I learned — C. I wanted that Pebble and Strap seemed like the perfect API to work with.
How did your team come together?
After the expo, MHacks gathered everyone who didn’t find a team into a lounge. I met Rocio from the University of North Carolina first, then we split up to find more people to join our group. I found Faizan and Ashay who were both from Georgia Tech and our group was formed! I told everyone that Strap had some pretty cool Pebble watches as a prize, and then shared with them an idea I once had and we went to work.
So, before anything, I must give a shoutout to Marcelle Bonterre from the Strap team. He is one of the most patient and diligent tech mentors I have ever met ☺ For some odd reason my MacBook did not want to install Strap Kit. We ran into numerous problems that we believed dealt with my npm. We googled for at least two hours researching alternatives and troubleshooting. I didn’t give up because Marcelle genuinely cared about helping me find a solution. After all of the failures we encountered, he was still there, and our will to find a solution grew stronger.
In order to stay efficient with my productivity I had to take a nap. I was exhausted from traveling 20 hours from Florida State University. After a nap, I got my friends together for a little fun. In Florida snow can be as rare as a unicorn. When we arrived in Michigan, I saw this smooth elevated hill and thought to myself “This would be so dope to slide down!” So I looked around and hacked together empty cardboard boxes into sleds. I shared the concept with my team and friends from FSU and we made it happen! It was like a our very own personal snow park. Afterwards I didn’t feel my fingers for a while but I’m typing fine now ☺
Saturday
Strap Kit still hadn’t installed for me, so my HackFSU partner Matt and I brainstormed for a few minutes and realized that my terminal username had numbers instead of my account name. He said Google it, I checked it out, looked up my hostname, and it ended up calling me a guest…hmm… I looked at my WiFi… and I was connected to University of Michigan’s Guest WiFi. I couldn’t believe it. Once Strap Kit installed successfully on my terminal, I found Marcelle and asked him, “Is this is the screen that I need?” He looked at me dumbfounded. I teased him a little and kept it to myself for a minute, then shared with him the silly headache that had produced the problem.
Once Strap was installed, how did you go about building Spant?
Faizan and Ashay both had experience with JavaScript and helped me program Spant. Spant? Let me explain: our understanding of time is somewhat subjective. A party feels like 5 minutes, but waiting in line at the DMV feels like hours. I wanted our perception of time to become objective. So I allowed the wearable user to “feel” what time is like. Spant is an application that vibrates your Pebble every interval time you selected (five minutes is recommended). That way we can classically condition ourselves to understand the span of time. It took about 12 hours to build. Pebble Pickup was another idea that our group came up with. Since there were still some edits to be done to Spant, I focused on the finishing touches on that project. Our group split but came together during Pebble Pickup’s presentation for support.
Sundayeee
It’s always been a childhood fantasy of mine to become a rapper. So during the closing ceremonies when the announcer was getting the crowd excited and they started an impromptu rap battle on stage, I knew it was my opportunity for some limelight and I took it! My stage name was TheCPE, like my Twitter handle. Having the crowd scream and clap for us felt amazing. Next up, Madison Square Garden? Then when we heard the winners for Strap’s API Rocio and I jumped out of our seats and shouted in celebration as if we won the lotto. It feel extremely rewarding to come into MHacks with a goal/idea and witness it become a reality.
Hackathons are like my work hours. They are a place where I can dedicate time to pursue any of the ideas that float around in my mind. I want to further develop Spant, publish it to the Pebble store and create a landing front end site. Pebble really opened my eyes to the purpose of wearables. Within a few hours I had adopted the habit of glancing at my watch for notifications and updates, rather than reaching in my pocket, unlocking, glancing, and repeat.
Have any plans to make more apps? More ideas?
When it comes to future projects, I have a plethora of ideas for apps and tech that will entertain me at any hackathon. However, I’m most excited about launching Florida State’s 90’s themed hackathon HackFSU. The hackathon culture at Florida hasn’t spread significantly yet, and the HackFSU team is passionate about representing the amazing experience of a hackathon to every student in the South.
