Def Hacks Virtual 2020 — Journey
In this medium article, I will walk you through my journey so far with Def Hacks Organization. You will get to know more about Def Hacks, my experience, some opportunities and a great news at the end for you. So read it all :D
Def Hacks
Hackathons by students, for students.
Def Hacks is a reputed international 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to providing immersive learning experiences for students in computer science across the world. At their free hackathons, they unite students, teachers, and tech companies to enable education, collaboration, and innovation. From first-time hackers to experienced coders, Def Hacks provides opportunities for their attendees to expand their skill-sets, get to know the tech community, and create projects. In addition, they give students in underprivileged communities the resources and opportunities to succeed in a computer science career through their CS outreach program.
Def Hacks Virtual 2020
Jun 20, 2020 — Jun 21, 2020
Def Hacks Virtual 2020 hackathon was a free 36-hour event for high school and college students. It was a worldwide event in which students of all skill levels around collaborated to create innovative projects to solve the worlds problems. Students also participated in workshops to learn new skills, ask questions to top tech minds, participate in fun mini-events, and won amazing prizes!
Hackathons for me…
Talking about me, I have always loved participating in hackathons in any way possible. Hackathon is an event where you get to learn something which you might not come across in your normal study/college life. Hackathons are not like any normal event where you register, participate, win and you are done. It is a lot more than these normal things.
Hackathon brings a lot number of opportunities within itself, the number depends on the way you see to opportunity. For me it brings a lot of learning opportunity, one comes out of their comfort zone and make a great idea/project/prototype overnight. Not only about making ideas work, but one also get to meet lot of people, connect with them, share ideas, gain knowledge and much more. Also, if fun comes along the way with learning so what else is required.
Hackathon provides such an environment which brings smile on your face and you enjoy each and every moment of it. Networking with great minds of the world and talking to them about your queries, if you want something like this, definitely attend a hackathon. There is a pool of amazing people being a part of each hackathons happening across the world.
What would be the better weekend then spending it with like-minded people, learning new stuffs, making new friends, having great fun and bagging memories for lifetime!?
How I came to know about Def Hacks Virtual 2020?
It was just an another normal day when I was surfing over internet and checking my twitter. While scrolling through the feed, I encountered a hashtag #DefHacks, I straight away clicked it and read few tweets that mentioned it. Seeing that I landed on Def Hacks twitter handle and eventually got to the website. I found out that the hackathon has got some great stories to tell and have hosted various hackathons in the past.
While checking the website, I also came across the Mentor Application Form. I thought of helping the hackers in any way possible and be a part of this amazing hackathon organization. I filled up the form in no time and applied for the same. Waiting was all I needed to do after then.
On June 10, 2020 early in the morning when I woke up, I saw a mail which read “Next steps for Mentors and Judges — [Def Hacks Virtual 2020]” and I was glad to be a Mentor. I quickly completed the steps to be followed in the mail and joined the Slack Channel for Def Hacks Virtual 2020. I introduced myself and started interacting with Hackers.
It was a great experience to connect with people from around the world. I got an opportunity to talk with them, know more about the way they work, things they do in their routine and much more. Along with networking I also got to meet many hackers and know about their project, it was just super good to see High School Hackers coming and joining the hackathons from their home and coding for solving a problem and for some purpose.
Being a mentor, I was able to help the participants with their doubts and queries regarding the hack idea they were working on. Few times I also jumped on a quick zoom call to make them understand some concepts which were difficult to explain on chats.
There were also great workshops and speakers which helped the Hackers understand the concepts and put forward their questions. Prominent personalities in tech like Tom Preston-Werner (Former CEO of GitHub), Amjad Masad (CEO of Repl.it), Ge Wang (Stanford Professor) and Coyte Cooper (Best selling Author and Motivational Speaker) joined us there, to answer some of the most sizzling questions of the decade.
After this all, it was the time for results and closing ceremonies. There were many prizes that team could have opt for while submitting their hack ideas. You can check with the list of Prizes here. Two teams were granted $1000 to continue working on their projects along with $10,000 in AWS credits! Not only this, but many other teams also bagged cash prizes and perks worth more than $42,000!
Also Check with the Recap Video of Def Hacks Virtual 2020 as below. And don’t forget to spot me @8:30s :D
That’s all ?
Being part of this I also got an opportunity to apply for the Organizer role of Def Hacks. I applied for it, went through the interview and guess what? I got selected for the Organizer position of Def Hacks!! Well, this is all together a different story to tell.
Let me come to the point.
In June, Def Hacks successfully hosted a virtual hackathon with 1300+ participants from 54 different countries!
Well, Def Hacks is just getting EVEN BIGGER this time!!
On November 14–15, 2020, we are organizing the sequel of our successful virtual Hackathon; titled Def Hacks | Global 2.0!!!
A lot of prizes, swags, and important opportunities are waiting for you there. Craig Newmark (Founder of Craigslist), Tim Ruscica (Founder of Tech With Tim) and Dave Camp (SVP of Firefox, Mozilla) and many more speakers will be joining us there to tell you about the latest Tech Industry trends, Entrepreneurship and answer the questions coming from your curious minds!
Participate individually or join in as a team of up to 4 members.
AND AND AND, all this is completely free and virtual!
If you miss it, you might never get this opportunity again.
Note down the dates: 14th and 15th November!Register today here | Join us on our slack | Learn more about us
I would like to thanks Sheshank Shankar (CEO of Def Hacks) for giving me this opportunity for mentoring and later becoming a Organizer for Def Hacks Organization. I would also like to appreciate the entire Def Hacks team for putting in their efforts and time for helping grow the Hacker Community across the globe.
I would also like to thank Major League Hacking to support Def Hacks and other hackathons and contributing actively to help grow the Hackathon culture more and more around the world. I would also like to thank Jacklyn Biggin (MLH Coach) for helping the organizers running the Hackathon with great fun and creating outstanding hacker experience.
I also thank all the participants (Hackers) who joined us for the weekend and did something extraordinary, all the fellow mentors which all had something different to say, all the amazing judges, speakers, sponsors and partners.
Hey Readers, thanks for your time. If you liked the article, don’t forget to appreciate it by a clap👏 and if in case you loved ❤ it, you can give ♾️👏:p
I am Google Crowdsource Influencer | CodingBlocks ~ HackerEarth CA | Hack This Fall Lead Organiser | Mentor | TechSpeaker | Community Lover | Blogger | Hackathon Enthusiast | He/His/Him
If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to comment below or you can connect with me on
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