3 Tips to Winning Hackathons as NCSV Dominates
Hey everyone! We are back with more amazing stories to share!
Having to juggle between work and studies during weekdays, weekends become ever more precious for our dear friends in NOC. Apart from hiking, beach trips or attending some cool events, one of the major highlights is participating in hackathons.
Recently, several NOC students decided to put their knowledge and skills to the test In the recent API World Hackathon. API World Hackathon 2016 is the nation’s largest API + Integration hackathon, organized annually in conjunction with the 3rd Annual API World 2016 Conference and Expo. It offers a landscape view of new API services available to developers, allowing them to get their hands dirty and create new innovative applications.
We are proud to share that 3 of our NOC teams have emerged victorious and won some awesome prizes!
Team members:
Kyle Tan, Shaun Thium,
De Lin Hoo, Israel Zeng
What they won:
· $2000 Visa Gift Card
· $500 Visa Gift Card: Bonus for callback listener/slack integration
· 1-year subscriptions to eSignLive Professional (one each)
Team members:
Joshua Aung, Nicholas Lui,
Celso Endo, Phil
What they won:
· Router worth $1000 per person
· 3-years Cloud license for the router
Team members:
Suphasak Udomkichdecha, Mai Anh Vu, Rafikah Halim, Chua Si Hao, Cheah Kit Weng
What they walked away with:
· $10000 cash prize
We caught up with them after their wins and asked for their secret sauces to success at hackathons. We think it boils down to the following:
- “Mental toughness and stamina”
If you thought that an idea should be prepared before a hackathon to be victorious, our winners suggest otherwise. Our top 3 teams spent a considerable amount of time ideating and brainstorming different ideas during the hackathon. It is only through a team’s perseverance, involving the constant evolvement and tweaking of each ideas, and finding the right fit to the sponsors’ challenge that the winning idea is borned. As what Nicholas Lui, from one of the winning teams, commented: “Hackathons are a constant thinking process” — requiring mental toughness and stamina.
2. “Always prudent to set small goals and solve problems as they come”
The road to success is never easy. It is one that is filled with unexpected challenges and only teams that are determined and persevere will find themselves crossing the finish line. Hence, it is always prudent to set small goals and solve problems as they come, be it mobile or web application, or the end goal will always seem to be unreachable. “Break it up, and keep clearing obstacles one after another. As long as everyone keeps focus and work to complete each small goal, the team will find where they want to be in the end.” Nicholas also warned: “Hackathons are exhausting! So be prepared to sacrifice some beauty sleep.”
3. “Team dynamics is crucial”
Team dynamics is the centrepiece of the whole success story. Suphasak suggested that apart from gathering talents from different areas, finding members that complement in strength and weakness will prove absolutely crucial — like pieces of a puzzle fitting perfectly into each other to form a complete picture. No matter if you are a computer science wizard, an API specialist, an user interface and experience artist, or a business genius, everyone is just a single piece of a much larger picture. Only by accommodating each other edges will the puzzle be completed and the final picture revealed. A good hackathon team goes a long way. Kyle responded that “We intend to keep winning the hackathons as they come! No point stopping now!” There are more hackathons to come, so build up a team that you are comfortable with. If that doesn’t lead you to victory, don’t give up, you never know if your team could be the champions of future hackathons!
Congratulations once again to our 3 teams for winning at the API Hackathon! NCSV is dominating at these events indeed.
So what are you waiting for? Start hacking!
For more information about API world: http://apiworld.co/
Find out more about NOC and the Silicon Valley program: http://enterprise.nus.edu.sg/educate/nus-overseas-colleges
NOC Page: https://www.facebook.com/NUSOverseasColleges/
NUSEA Page: https://www.facebook.com/NUSEntrepreneursAssociation/
Till the next post!
