Community Spotlight: Hackers of HackCamp 2022
Meet the hackers who joined us at HackCamp 2022!
After two years of online hackathons, we’re back with HackCamp to kick off our in-person events!
HackCamp is our hackathon dedicated to those who are new to the hackathon scene. In this beginner’s hackathon, we focus on diversity, inclusivity, and accessibility. Through our Community Spotlights, we hope to show the diverse stories of those who joined us!
This article is a collection of hacker spotlights from HackCamp. We hope these stories inspire you like they inspired us, and encourage you to try something new in the tech industry as well!
Note: The responses have been edited for length and clarity. Some names have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.
Michelle, Callum, Henry, Suhail
Why join us at HackCamp?
Michelle: This is my first hackathon and there aren’t any other ones that are happening now that are interesting to me. It’s also beginner-friendly.
Henry: It also fell on a weekend that I didn’t have anything big due the next week. It was good timing.
Did you guys know each other before today? How did you become a team?
Callum: Suhail and I registered together. I know Henry but I didn’t know he was coming.
Michelle: And I didn’t know anyone — I was adopted into the team at the team building event
Tell me about your project.
Callum: The Centre for Accessibility at UBC has exam accommodations. And right now they’re doing all of their operations on paper. So there are some problems: there’s no central system, for example, to notify the exam proctor when people are done and when they can end the exam. It’s just a very messy system with a lot of other papers and such. And so what we’re doing is we’re creating a version of this system but on the computer. And so we’ll be able to have QR codes on doors which you can scan and you can start and stop exams. You can also log information like every time it has been checked, and then you’ll have a central system that notifies people when it will be or when it’s time to end an exam.
How did you come up with this idea?
Callum: We brainstormed for an hour before I remembered I had a list of ideas I prepared before and that was one of them —
Michelle: — it was really good, and we decided to just run with it.
Callum: Our other ideas just weren’t feasible or very useful so we went with this.
What has been your favorite part of HackCamp so far?
Suhail: The community is pretty nice. Also just the opportunity to go somewhere, sit down for 12 hours, and have everything — snacks, food, whatever — provided to you and work on a cool project.
Henry: I think the fact that it is more beginner-oriented. It definitely relieves some of the pressure. We’re really just here to learn.
Patty
Tell me about yourself.
— I’m in my third year of Media Studies and I’m minoring in Informatics.
What made you decide to come to HackCamp?
— I’ve never been to a hackathon. I have some relevant experience but never got the chance to attend one. Since this hackathon is beginner-friendly, I thought it would be a good opportunity to try it out.
How did you get into tech?
— I’ve been doing graphic design for a long time. I got into coding through CPSC 103 with Professor Jessica and I enjoyed it so I wanted to do a Computer Science minor but I can’t anymore. Now I’m just trying to get involved outside of class.
HackCamp is centered around diversity, inclusivity, and accessibility. What does this mean for you?
— When I do UX/UI design, I have to think a lot about the inclusivity and accessibility of my design. Making sure the visibility of text and images work for different demographics and being flexible with that. But also just understanding that different people have different needs and trying to incorporate that into my designs.
Defne, Janie, Sam, Willis (Most Creative Prize winners)
How did you guys become a team?
Sam: We were all solo hackers and knew that we needed to find a team so we went to the team-building event and met there.
Tell me about your project.
Sam: So our project is essentially a small game that lets you meet other people, interact with them, and have a little fun. Its battle is inspired by Pokemon and Undertale.
Defne: Yeah, and we wanted to make our project more specific to UBC students and the community. So that’s why the game takes place kind of on campus.
What is your favorite part of HackCamp?
Janie: I really enjoyed meeting new people. I was so nervous coming in because there were a lot of people but it was nice to meet everyone.
Sam: I think for me it was making the deadline for the submission. We just got it in before submissions closed and just submitting our project was a very rewarding feeling.
Was this your first hackathon? How did you find it?
Willis: Yeah, it’s my first hackathon. I’m glad it was 12 hours, I don’t think I could have lasted longer.
Sam: I always hear about how cool hackathons are so I was quite nervous about it but being here was actually really comfortable.
Defne: Yeah, and the mentors and TAs were all super helpful during the workshops on Build Day.
Special thanks to these hackers for sharing their hackathon stories. We’re always so happy to hear from our hackers, so that we can create more inclusive experiences for new and experienced hackers alike.
Don’t forget to check out our other Community Spotlights!
Stay tuned to hear more from our nwPlus community! 👋
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