Hacking Through Hong Kong
Last weekend, some friends and I organized a 24-hour hackathon for 300 students in southeast Asia.
As an exchange student, I was just looking for a community where I could connect with local students, do something interesting, and see new places.
How’d I get involved?
January 7th, 2015:
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hackUST is based out of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, was created for students and by students, and is the second collegiate hackathon in Hong Kong.
It’s not even my university, but it was the place I felt the innovation + entrepreneurship community thrived most and felt most comfortable in. So I connected with the guys there, found myself loving their spirit (who reminded me of my Startup Shell family back at home), and happily committed and commuted the two-hour train ride each a week.
The UST (as they call it) campus overlooks an ocean/island view that students pass on their way to class.
The overlook is shaped as an arch and resembles a mushroom. From that, we derived our mushroom theme which you’ll see more of later.
For background, I’m a hearing and speech major and oftentimes find myself asking, How did I get here, anyway?
But anyway,
Here’s what happened in the last 24 hours.
We started off with an opening ceremony.
Teams formed, brainstormed, and started hacking.
It was neat to see teams working together, putting ideas into action: all those hours in meeting rooms with the organizing team had paid off: this was really happening!
Designs I humorously made on illustrator were now on shirts, name tags, banners, and laptop screens.
(A mushroom theme would never fly in the states. When I tell my friends back home that people on this side of the world think differently, this is part of what I mean. Not one person commented, questioned, or laughed at it. They thought it sounded cool and just went with it. And so did I. This was all part of the authenticity of an overseas hacakthon, and I loved it.)
And it was all fun and games,
It really really was.
Kiddos kept hackin’
……and snackin’
And at night, the university president came!
A big deal to the students (more than in America) because education is a huge huge deal here.
We took lots (loooots) of pictures….
Ate who-knows-what for dinner….
And then went back to hacking!
At midnight, things started to get crazy.
We were we so tired that we got super giggly
At 2am, we started our mini challenges.
The first was code-related: find the hidden message in this .jpg (picture of a mushroom). The second (my fave) was a Bubble Wrap Challenge
“whoever can pop the most bubbles in 30 seconds, wins”
By the way, just like the mushroom theme, this was an idea I jokingly brought up at one of the meetings. “Let’s do something non-technical!”
Things got really funny and the participants got super hyped about it.
At 4am, one of the organizers helped me code a website.
and at 5, I fell asleep.
Morning agenda was hectic, organizing logistics, helping participants, and making last minute edits to the closing ceremony powerpoint.
But finally, people demo-ed their projects, and judges made their decisions.
Alas, the event was complete!
This team made it all worthwhile.
Ode to what’s been an incredible, hilarious, tiring, and exciting 24 hours.
MAY THE MUSH BE WITH YOU.
