My HackHarvard 2019 Experience
I was lying on the hospital bed fighting dengue. As I was lying there at my worst, having a disturbed sleep cycle and skipping meals felt like the biggest mistakes of my life. Had I been a little more concerned about my health, had I taken meal breaks from coding, had I not coded all nights, I would have been in a better state to fight the disease.
But the thing that disturbed me the most was, I could not attend VITHack. I had been waiting to take part in a big hackathon, and VITHack was my chance to prove my skills. An always positive person otherwise was asking ‘why me?’ for the first time.
2 days passed in the hospital, I cancelled all my talks and other plans and was hoping to get better. And then I got an email saying that they had selected me for HackHarvard 2019. This. Probably this is what I needed at my lowest. 😁😁😁
This reminded me of a saying from Harivansh Rai Bachchan
मन का हो तो अच्छा, न हो तो और भी अच्छा
Translated: If things happen as per your wish, it's good; if it doesn’t, it’s even better.
His son, Mr Amitabh Bachchan, further explains this: If things don’t happen as per your wish, it happens as per the wish of some divine force, and that force will never think ill of you.
Preparing for the long trip
Before HackHarvard, the longest distance I had travelled alone was 600km. Even the thought of going to the USA, ~12,000 km away from my home was very intimidating and exciting at the same time.
I was the first one from Goa to ever get selected for HackHarvard, so I was very much excited to share the news with my mentor. After all, my dream of putting Goa on the world’s tech map was about to climb its second step. The first step remains to be the day when I won the ‘Mobile Excellence Award’ from Awwwards.
My mentor Mr Prajyot Mainkar and our college Principal, Dr M S Krupashankara, helped me prepare for the visa interview. Principal sir didn’t want to take any chances, so he gave me all the necessary documents and letters from the college to present at the US Consulate. All these things happened so quickly that I travelled overnight to Mumbai to give the interview.
Fast forward to 3 days, my Visa got approved 🎉. The moment the officer said my Visa is approved, I could not stop smiling for the next 30 minutes. No words can describe how happy I was. 😁 And I was all set to go to the US.
Stay in Boston
After changing 3 flights, I finally landed in New York. There were 5–6 other students on the same flight that I travelled in, so we all pretty much knew each other. (And it doesn’t take much time for boys to go from friends to brothers 😉)
The moment we all got out of the airport, I started shivering 🥶. 10–12-degree Celsius was too much for a Goan 😅. After a while, we all left for the city to take Greyhound Bus. Some of us were going to Boston, MA (where Harvard College is located) while others stayed close to NY. It took almost 5 hours to travel from one state to another.
The first thing we ate after boarding off the bus was Pizza. The pizzas there are so delicious that I ate the $3-$6 pizza slices every day for the next 10 days. 😋 Then all of us parted, and I headed to my Airbnb. The houses in Boston look the same and I had a hard time searching for my apartment. But all that struggle was worth it. Boston is an exquisite city, and I truly enjoyed every second I spent there. Though the houses look the same, they differ greatly from other parts of the US. I had seen such houses only in Hollywood movies and now I was staying in one of such houses 😎.
The next morning I visited the Harvard Campus. The campus is so huge that I spent the entire day exploring the campus which is as big as a city. It has many libraries, museums, parks, and restaurants inside. The same night my friend and teammate, Darsh joined me at Airbnb. He is ‘the best’ student developer I have ever worked with and an inspiration to me.
MIT Campus
I stayed awake till 3 am the night before the Hackathon taking down notes for the hack. I was writing down the things that would make my front-end appealing. Though I had not coded for almost 3 months, I was very confident that my front end would be one of the best there, and I wasn’t wrong.
The next morning, I left for Harvard College with Darsh. There were a few hours left for the hackathon to start, so we visited the MIT Campus. And who would not want to visit the best technical college in the world, right?
HackHarvard starts
Hackathon started at 7 pm after dinner. The team finalized on the med-tech track and we kicked off with the hack. I knew I would get grinded for the next 36 hours 😑 (sad frontend life). Throughout the hackathon, I aimed to make the UI no one would expect from a student.
Usually, for hackathons, I code non-stop for hours until the website is fully complete. But HackHarvard was different. Some of the brilliant minds from all over the world were present there. I was competing directly with the student of Harvard, coders from MIT, and designers from RISD. The hall was full of like-minded people and mentors from Facebook, Google, MLH, etc.
I made some really good friends there and had wonderful conversations with students from VIT, BITS, MIT, Harvard, and RISD. I got to learn a lot from students from top tier colleges.
The experience was astounding. Way better than I anticipated. I had a lot of experience in participating in hackathons before HackHarvard, so I didn’t really learn what and hows of hackathons there. What I learned at HackHarvard was, the students out there are way better than I am. They are smart and talented, which made me realize that I need to work hard to get where they are. After having competed with such good developers, I have a clear picture in my mind of how many more steps I need to climb to reach my goals.
For me, the experience was about coming out of Goa’s environment where I’m being treated as an extraordinary person to facing the reality and knowing where I actually am. It wasn’t just an experience, but a lesson for me.
Those 36 hours were very exciting and tiring. HackHarvard is the best hackathon I have ever been to. Check the pics below to know why.😋😋😋
With my team. You can see the tired faces.
While coming back home, I had to carry a separate handbag to put the swags.
Note: Due to the pandemic, all the hackathons have moved online but the application acceptance process remains the same. Since it’s virtual, the number of participants is going to increase and it will get even more difficult to get into the top hackathons. Write a good application and make sure your resume is well structured.
If you have any questions, feel free to connect with me on social media. Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter. I get along well with like-minded people. 😀
Tech Trip to New York
Our post hackathon plan was to stay in New York. While all my friends were going to explore NY together, I decided to stay alone. I had some different “tech” plans 😉.
I knew there were Apple, Google, and Microsoft flagship stores in NY, and being a techie, I didn’t hesitate even a little before dropping the Statue of Liberty and Downtown plans. I wanted to experience the tech I could never experience in India.
On the first day at the tech trip, I luckily boarded off at one of the tallest structures in Manhattan, Rockefeller Center. Rockefeller Center is a large complex comprising 19 commercial buildings. When I got out of the station, I was so amazed to see the tall buildings. Both in Boston and Harlem, the buildings are very short (10 levels at the most). So seeing buildings 90–100+ levels was the most beautiful experience for me. I had never seen such tall buildings in my life.
The first tech store I visited was Microsoft Store Fifth Avenue. This is one of the three Microsoft flagship stores in the world. The other two are in London and Sydney. For a Microsoft fan, a hardware store is heaven on Earth.
There I got my hands on all the surface devices like Surface Pro, Surface Dial, Surface Laptop, Surface Studio 1 and 2, and my favourite Surface Headphones. I wanted those headphones so badly that I had decided to buy the $300 headphones. 😄 Had my mother said yes to it, I would have bought it. Apart from these devices, the things that got my attention in the store were IMAX theatre, Gaming Studio, and Microsoft HoloLens.
The IMAX theatre is tiny with 9 or 10 seats. It is a collaboration between Microsoft and IMAX where they made a special Windows OS for the IMAX.
On one level, they have a Gaming Studio where professional gamers play. They also have high-end video recording equipment to stream games online.
The best thing about the store is undoubtedly the HoloLens. The guide was giving us a demo of the lens and briefing about Microsoft’s history. Being a fan, I couldn’t stop myself from talking about the initial days of Microsoft, how it rose and became a trillion-dollar company, and eventually, I drifted the conversation towards the Pentagon deal. Man, that was enough politics for a day. 😅
I spent almost 5 hours in the store and got some goodies too. 😁 I was very lucky to visit a flagship store as all the Microsoft physical stores are permanently shut down, including all three flagships.
The next showroom I visited was Tesla. Just like the Microsoft Store, I doubt the Tesla showroom will come to India anytime soon. I visited the showroom early in the morning. The staff was very cooperative and let me sit in all the cars, even when they knew I would not buy any of them. 😆
Teslas are not the most expensive cars I ever sat into, but its minimalistic design approach makes it look like an ultra-premium piece of tech. The big screens, the premium seats, the balmy interior and an uncompromised design offers an incredible experience. I spent hours trying out every feature they had inside the cars. (didn’t drive though)
Apart from these, I also visited Apple’s iconic Fifth Avenue Store. I‘m sure you have seen this iconic store on social media. That big glass structure is the entrance of the store. There is an enormous store beneath that structure.
I also wished to share the fun part of New York with y’all, but this article has already gotten too long. 😄 So I guess I’ll stop here. HackHarvard, Boston and New York gave me a lot of memories to cherish for a lifetime. And thank god all this happened before the covid19 outbreak. 😅
Feel free to connect with me on social media. Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter. I get along well with like-minded people.
