Community Spotlights: Hackers of nwHacks 2022
Meet some of the enthusiastic hackers who joined us at Western Canada’s Largest Hackathon
This January, hundreds of hackers, mentors, and sponsors joined us virtually for our annual hackathon, nwHacks 2022! With the Community Spotlights program, we hope to engage members of the local tech community (and people who would like to get engaged!) by highlighting the diversity of the people who join us.
This article is a compilation of the Spotlights from the hackers of nwHacks. Check out the Community Spotlights page to see our compilation of the mentor Spotlights from nwHacks!
We hope these stories inspire you like they inspired us, and encourage you to try something new in the tech industry as well. Without further ado, meet the hackers of nwHacks 2022!
Collin Eng (he/him)
You were at HackCamp last year! How have you been since we spoke?
— “I’ve been on co-op, gaining some real life work experience. My co-op term’s company, Mattermost, is an open-source messaging platform, and I focused on front-end work with React and Redux. I’ve also been getting involved with web3 and blockchain technology.”
What inspired you to look into web3?
— “My dad! During winter break we were listening to some podcasts about web3, including blockchain and NFTs. I learned about the Mike Shinoda, the drummer at Linkin Park that was getting into the web3 space, and I thought that was really inspiring.”
What would you recommend for beginners getting into web3?
— “I’m personally still a newbie but I’ve been looking at a bunch of YouTube including FreeCodeCamp.org which centers around blockchain. I also listen to podcasts on Spotify and Apple Music. I really enjoy looking up new things in the news that are interesting in the space. At nwHacks this year we also got some exposure to web3 with speakers at the hackathon so it’s a great idea to get involved with web3 by just going to tech events!”
What are you excited to do at nwHacks this year?
— “I’m not going to spoil my group’s project this year, so I won’t go into detail, but we’re looking to get involved in webapp work, maybe something mobile. The focus of my team is to have fun and maybe win something if we can, but mostly to get involved with the community and meet new people!”
Ellen Lloyd (she/her)
Welcome! What made you decide to join us at nwHacks?
— “nwHacks is my first hackathon! I’m in the BCS program at UBC, and I only have a few Computer Science classes under my belt. I made sure to join a team with more technical experience because this is my first hackathon. I was pleasantly surprised that I’ve been able to contribute to my team in other ways, other than the technical structure. I’d never be able to bootstrap something technical within the 24 hours, so I’m glad I have my team.”
Now that you’re at a hackathon, what’s something that attracts you to future hackathons?
— “It’s really great to be able to ideate by bouncing ideas off of other people! I could come up with a dozen of potential ideas, but not have any idea on how to act on the ideas yet. My group members with more technical experience are able to help guide what would be feasible and what kind of work would go into creating a solution for the problem on the technical side.”
What would you like to see as a beginner hacker to make your entry to tech easier?
— “Coming from my background as an instructor for Commerce classes, and where I was mentoring students through projects in business areas, partnerships between industry and education in a way that facilities meaningful course projects for students would be a great way to learn. Courses where projects have real-life applications are incredibly helpful because there is mentorship from industry professionals.”
What would you say to someone else who wanted to change their career or educational path into tech?
— “I completed multiple degrees before ever realizing I wanted to do Computer Science. I’m turning 30 this year! I’m late in the game here and a lot of people here know a lot more than I do. If you are thinking about pivoting into tech, don’t forget that you have a wealth of knowledge from other areas that may not be obvious to you. Seek out activities like hackathons to leverage the combination of your other knowledge with tech!”
Rachit Malik (he/him)
Have you attended hackathons before? What is your favourite part of hackathons?
— “nwHacks is my fourth hackathon, I’ve also done Dubhacks, Hack the North, and business-focused hackathons. I did Hack the North in-person and it was really cool to join hackers in person in Waterloo. In the past I also did nwHacks in person, it was one of my first hackathons!” — “Definitely my favourite part of hackathons is the ability of coming together with other people. I am a big fan of design thinking: creating a product that solves a significant problem with the user in mind. At hackathons we learn how to prototype something quickly, which is very useful in product management as well when you are tasked with making a useful proof of concept in a short amount of time. In terms of technology, you tend to pick up a lot of skills that you may not have picked up otherwise. There’s also a lot of fun stuff that goes on apart from the hacking, such as workshops and mini activities, to take a break from the programming.”
How do you build a good project at a hackathon?
— “In order to build a good project, I’m a firm believer that you must be solving a problem that’s worth solving, just thinking in terms of what you’re building and who you’re building for. Try your best to validate what the problem is, to prove that it’s worth solving. There might not be enough time to do a full user study at a hackathon, but you can always discuss your ideas with the people around you at the hackathon to try to validate the problem you’re solving.”
What are you up to at nwHacks this year?
— “I’m teaming up with some friends where most of us are in our final year, and we figured that since this is one of our last semesters we wanted to come together and create something of our own before we graduate. I’ve been a developer in previous internships before, so I have some experience in coding, and I love building for the user. This hackathon I’m working mainly in the backend.”
— “One of our teammates listens to a lot of podcasts, and they love sharing tidbits they find in their podcasts. However, they have to listen to the whole podcast, find the interesting quote, then manually type to text to share to their friends. We wanted to leverage speech-to-text technology involving machine learning, to make this process easier for anyone who’d like to share their knowledge in the podcast space. We will be building a web application that is also optimized for a smooth mobile experience, which allows users to grab quotes from your favourite podcasts easily. Making this process seamless is a pretty cool design challenge that we’re excited to create a solution for.”
What would make hackathons more accessible to beginners?
— “The tech community may seem daunting to join. When I joined, I was scared about what if i make a stupid mistake and people laugh at me? I feel that we need a lot more welcoming events to make tech accessible to beginners, and hackathons are a good space for that.”
— “If I could speak to a previous version of myself, I would help myself get my foot in through the door. If you’re worried about getting started, applying to as many hackathons as you can helped me a lot. I did receive some rejections, and it does seem impossible at first, but try to apply for these events (especially beginner events such as HackCamp). They allow you to demonstrate your interest and experience in tech, so that you can get some skills under your belt to apply for more internships easily.”
— “It may seem daunting to ask questions, but there are no dumb questions. There are mentors who are happy to help, even for stuff that you’re not able to figure out if you’re stuck. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.”
— “When you’re looking for your first co-op, go to career fairs and talk to the reps (or go to hackathons and talk to sponsors)! Once I got an interview at a hackathon! Don’t hesitate to put yourself out there and sell yourself.”
Danil Platonov (he/him)
Welcome to nwHacks! Have you attended hackathons before?
— “I attended nwHacks in the past as a hacker, back when it was in-person. I also attended EduHacks, BizHacks, and LiteHacks in the past. I think it’s a good experience! It’s a good opportunity to work on projects you wouldn’t work on in general. It’s cool to build on something in a short amount of time that wouldn’t be super practical in practice. I enjoy doing things for just for the fun of it, and to explore new ideas at hackathons!”
You seem very engaged in the local tech space! What’s something memorable about your experience getting involved?
— “In the tech space recently, there has been a lot of opportunities to get involved virtually especially now that meetup groups have moved online. Discord servers also allow you to get in touch with contributors around the world. I guess a silver lining of COVID, maybe!”
What is one of your strategies to build connections virtually?
— “It’s good to have a specific problem in mind when you reach out to people in the community, so that you have good questions to ask. It’s also very helpful to read and study the documentation that people recommend. Put in some effort to self-learn and come prepared when getting involved with the community!”
Given your background in Physics and Mathematics, what inspired you to go into tech-related fields?
— “I got started with Minecraft mods on an open-source Minecraft clone. This hobby piqued my interest in open-source development and landscape generation!”
— “Landscape generation was something interesting to me and also related to my degree in Applied Mathematics. I had a professor who had research in a tangential area, so I asked my prof about landscape generation in Minecraft and they had good advice about how I could use this interest to fuel my research.”
Thank you, Collin, Ellen, Rachit, and Danil for sharing your inspiring 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! 👋
