Stay Late and Code 2019 — All you need to know about FACE’s 24 hour annual hackathon
With SLAC 2019 being within a month away, I am writing this post to answer a lot of queries that I have been asked at the school. Stay Late and Code (SLAC), is the annual 24 hour hackathon held at Amrita School of Engineering — Bangalore, organized by FACE.
At SLAC, we provide the participants with a platform, provide them with all the required facilities for a hackathon and a conducive environment to support effective coding. SLAC gives undergraduate students an opportunity to meet like minded individuals from other institutions and share ideas and opinions.
The above image definitely helps you understand the magnitude of SLAC over the years. You get a rough idea of why it is a very, very important event. Up ahead, I shall answer a few queries that first time SLAC-sters usually have.
What is a Hackathon ?
A hackathon is an event, driven by ideas which are in-turn backed up by good code. Most hackathons require you to create end to end applications, usually these applications are intended to solve particular problems that pertain to the theme of the hackathon. A hackathon promotes good design, good code, good project management, good time management and good presentation skills.
And yes, SLAC is a hackathon!
What is the big deal about attending SLAC ?
This is a subjective question. But, I shall try answering this to the best of my abilities. As a person who has attended a couple of SLAC’s , here are the few takeaways I got from it.
You Learn to Code
The multiple coding sessions we tend to attend, the multiple you-tube tutorials we watch, the multiple websites we refer to and the multiple documentations we go through are all very important resources for dwelling into the world of writing code. But, at the end of the day, do we have atleast a 50% recall rate of all the code we learnt through our varied resources? The answer to this would definitely not be too pleasing for us :(
But, a hackathon is solution to this. It is because, in a hackathon, we work on a project in a short time span. We code with a purpose and we code with a deadline — the two most pressing factors that encourage our brains to assimilate information rapidly. A language or concept learnt in the course of a hackathon is going to stay with us for long.
It is important that a coder’s relationship with a programming language or concept is much more than a blown up, hyped up infatuation !
Working Together ← → Working Better
SLAC is a team hackathon (4 members per team). Team hackathons are rather special. They don’t just indicate an individual’s prowess, instead they bring to light how good, effective collaboration helps create wonderful software. Every team at SLAC should ideally comprise of a designer (the one who creates the layout for the software, the one who makes sure people want to use the application), a domain expert (one who has a well defined idea about the problem the software is trying to solve) and developers (the guys who write the code). Not everyone has to be a master in all parts. Each person hooked onto one part of the project will be more than enough for a team to come up with a working application.
Interactions, Interactions and Interactions
Meeting like minded individuals from the same college and from other colleges, meeting judges from the industry, meeting mentors at the venue are all amazing opportunities for budding developers to identify themselves with the real world. You have 2 choices in a social event like a hackathon.
1. You either hide from everybody else
2. You get out of your comfort zone and interact
The first choice is a brilliant one if you want to end up with no growth in skills after the hackathon.
The Experience
13 hours of coding…5 hours of sleep…1 slow laptop…9 cups of coffee…1 Android for Dummies Guide…1 Java for Beginners Guide…0 friends.
That was my first SLAC experience. I made a scientific calculator application for Android. It’s UI was basic, it’s functionality was redundant, the idea was definitely not original. It was basically, me trying to mimic somebody else’s work. But, looking back, that tiny little application taught me about how much patience and resilience I possessed and also brought to my notice that Android was definitely not my cup of tea.
Similarly, each one of you attending a hackathon will have an experience to share. And that’s what is really important. Because, it’s often this experience that helps us learn, it helps us grow, it helps us see dimensions of ourselves that we never were aware of before.
Is SLAC worth it for a first year student who has no great skill-set to build applications ?
Well of course, it is! SLAC 2019 is going to be up-scaled to the level of Hackathon + Knowledge Fest. The team behind SLAC completely recognizes the conflict that arises in the minds of beginners when they hear about hackathons, the conflict that pits :
“Hackathons seem fun - I wanna attend!” vs “Am I good enough to attend a hackathon?”
Apart from the already mentioned perks of attending a hackathon, SLAC 2019 is also being designed in a way that facilitates effective knowledge dissemination both before the main event and during the main event. This is exclusively for those with no great coding experience. The team shall design multiple workshops on current trending technology, mini coding and competing events during the main event (these mini events will be accompanied by guides by our team on the concepts necessary to crack them) and networking sessions.
Also, on registering with us for SLAC 2019, attendees shall begin receiving mails regarding guides, articles and tips. Do give these resources a read, but as I said, it is important to type code, not just read it.
Hackathons have become so important in the current world because they are an “informal, not so rigid” way for coders to explore new boundaries. Hacks provide environments for you to code seriously as well as to just laze in there and take breaks when you are out of inspiration. Now, this works in stark contrast to traditional classroom sessions/workshops where attendees are expected to stay hooked onto their systems and type in the exact same code that the instructors provide. There is nothing wrong with this, because it is always a very good technique to mimic others’ code before you write your own. However, it is also important to make a switch from learning to applying the learning at the “right time”.
I am well-equipped with all skills I need to take part in this hackathon
— said no attendee ever !
SLAC vs “High Level Workshop” ?
A lot of first years at the school have asked me about whether they should be concentrating on learning high level terms that rule the industry at present or whether they should appear for SLAC. Now, it is difficult for me to answer that without sounding too defensive (for obvious reasons). So, I shall try my level best to give an unbiased answer to the same.
Stay clear of Herd Mentality
Don’t run head long into a concept hoping that it would help you get a job and be life ready. It is important to identify with what you want to learn. It is important to identify with a specific goal. Because, following jargon is the biggest mistake we all do as CS engineers.
Keep an eye on the attendee pool
An outcome of an event is largely dependent on the attendees who appear for it. It is important to keep interacting with other attendees. Because, several times, splendid ideas take birth from quality peer level interactions. More diverse the crowd, more different the colleges, greater the level of idea exchange and interactions.
Understand intellectual limits
It is brilliant to learn new topics and try out latest technology. But, if you want to end up being “developers” of cool stuff and not just mere “consumers”, it is highly necessary that you solidify the most important pre-requisites necessary to master any hot-selling topic out in the market. And it would definitely be of great help to understand how much learning one will be able to assimilate.
If there is just too much to take in and a huge amount of overflow, it might just muddle up things a little too much
But if you are a person who can grasp a lot with short time frames, then that’s amazing!
Just have a Blast
It’s important to enjoy an event if you attend it. A good event has a good take away from it and a lot of awesome experiences and new bonds created. So, it is important to have a blast at whichever event you wanna spend your time on 😃 😃 😃
Criteria for attending SLAC
- Be willing to learn
- Interact with fellow attendees
- Get your thinking abilities
- Don’t give up
- Be a sport and engage in coffee chugging contests
- Get your own pillows
Other details about SLAC
- Team Size : Anything from 1–4 members
- All years and all branches are welcome
- Registration Fee : Rs. 300/- per team (Early Bird Offer)
- Theme : Up on the Official SLAC Website
- Prizes : Will be up on the Official SLAC Website shortly
Where can you find us ?
We highly encourage you to check out the Official SLAC Website and follow us on Twitter. All SLAC related official updates shall be put up on the Twitter handle.
The Official Website : https://slacfest.in/
Twitter Handle : @slacfest2k19
The Official Mail ID : slacfest2k19@gmail.com
So, that’s all from me this time. Stay Tuned for further articles on SLAC 2019.
Hope it was a good read. If it was, don’t forget to encourage me with some claps 😃
