Let’s talk about tech, speed, a late night and a hackathon — with grit from somewhere to the east.
It’s a long time coming, been on the road and unavailable to give you the juice, apologies, here’s what happened!
Hackathons are a great place to collaborate with people on really awesome projects, the forLoopOAU hackathon was one such instance. See this previous post introducing the hackathon.
Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU as fondly called is touted as one of the better schools encouraging the development and utilization of internet technologies and prides itself with notable alumni who have gone on to do great things in the Nigerian tech scene.
Little wonder the hackathon was a success and brought about the development on fantastic ideas — though a number are on their way to completion.
Here’s how it happened!
Setup
The hackathon was slated to begin at 6pm WAT on the 29th of June. By 4pm, participants convened at the white house, OAU, to sort out their teams, understand the rules of engagement and ask as many questions as possible. Oh my! You should see the enthusiasm!
Next were the war rooms (as I called them in my head), I must commend the facilitators for doing a good job of getting a conducive venue. Hackers settled in at about 5:45pm, the rules were read out once more and the APIs to be utilized were explained by Chuloo.
APIs to be used were the Africastalking API, the Flutterwave Rave Payments API and applications were hosted using Whogohost!
If you haven’t used these services, my you could be missing! While Africastalking provides a new layer of development for developers using their USSD, SMS and Voice services, the Flutterwave Rave service allows you to receive payments seamlessly on your application.
Are your thoughts running wild on the blend of both products yet? Think offline apps for any Joe, Chinedu, and Kunle out there. Could be offline sales, delivery or information services with real-time SMS notifications or even voice prompts, the best part? You can make payments offline still using USSD. It can get wilder and obviously better!
At 7pm WAT (quite, African Time), the hackathon kicked off.
The Rundown…
From the first hour, we saw more of brainstorming from the participants with a number of them arguing over what idea would be built on, the air was quite nervy. You could feel it.
What stack do we use? Do you know python? How good is your CSS? These filled the air as everyone tried to get the better build tools and technologies out of their teams.
Moving on by an hour most hackers had settled in, the newfound tranquility can be felt. Notepads were being scratched on, keyboards slapped on and cables stepped on.
I’d like to commend the facilitators as well for keeping the quiet and helping out with logistics. Timilehin Ogunyemi you the real OG!
The hackathon continued way into the night, and while few team members had to take some sleep time off, not long, Gradle build time, rather cradle time.
Dawn and beyond…
By morning, the participants had to take turns to go freshen up, a couple had tests to write (not with Jest or its brothers) in school and returned in little time.
The hack however continued and proceeded till much later in the afternoon.
We had Adewale Adeleye from Whogohost come through to walk the participants through deployment on Whogohost.
T-Shirt swags were distributed courtesy of Whogohost and Flutterwave — clean clean.
Towards the end of the hack, the participants came forward to present the ideas they had been working on. Are you ready?
- EZ: Built a USSD food ordering and delivery application using Africastalking USSD service and receiving payments with Rave.
- Road 20 Hub: Built an emergency response, Android, web and USSD application, all interconnected. ER is just 4 screen taps away!
- Pipe Piper: Built MentChat — An Android app which gives you access to mentors online and mentors, in turn, get paid.
- Delta Hacktive: Built a web transaction scheduler to make scheduled periodic payments, ease the stress of always initiating recurrent payments.
- Hacktive Sigma: Built an offline USSD application giving you access to email services using Gmail.
- CropAdvice: Built an application which enables small farmers to boost productivity by receiving timely tips and advice on efficient agriculture.
- Team Tech: An Agribusiness focused application, enables you to buy and sell agricultural products online.
Each team submitted their projects and left feedback and recommendations on the APIs used.
Judging
Each project was just based on the following simple criteria:
- The application must be deployed and web accessible. .apk files for Android apps were submitted.
- The application must have a real-world use case.
- The application must be usable.
- The participant must utilize at least one of the stated APIs.
After the rounds of judging, the winners of the hackathon are:
- 1st Place: Road 20 Hub
- 2nd Place: Pipe Piper
- 3rd Place: EZ
Congratulations!
All rewards have been sent to the winners.
We urge them to continue with these awesome projects, it would require a lot of zeal, but who knows, it could move from a hackathon submission to an Angel Investment pitch in no time.
The Real Ones…
This wouldn’t be complete without the help of an amazing bunch of people who helped take this from 0 to 100! Thanks to Timilehin Ogunyemi, David Ashamu, Adetomi, and the rest of the team at OAU. From Adewagold, Ada Ogbodo to Mo, Temi, and Graham.
You all are the real ones!
To all the participants, stay curious, have fun, and do great stuff.
Here’s to becoming better.
Chuloo
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