Maybe you’ve recently ventured into tech (the world says ‘hello’ back!) and heard of these things called ‘hackathons.’ Or maybe you’re an established techie who just hasn’t yet had the chance to attend one.
Now is as good a time as any.
2018 will be nwHacks’ fourth year, and we’re so excited we’ve been counting down the days (55!). Today marks the just-over-halfway point of our Nov 1–30 application period. In this article, we interview some past attendees to try to shed some light on what the event is really like, and answer questions we’ve received both online and in person at our last hacknight. If there’s something on your mind that isn’t addressed here, don’t hesitate to drop us a line on Facebook or at apply@nwhacks.io 🤖
Lastly: props to Matt, Janet, and Em for sharing their experiences. Go follow these cool people on the interwebs!
Matthew Siu, 3rd year Science
Introduce yourself
I’m a Cognitive Systems student interested in Blockchain, AI, Data Vis and networks.
What was your first hackathon experience like / tell us about your hackathon journey?
My first hackathon was nwHacks two years ago. I remember being worried about people finding out I was a beginner since I had started learning to code two months prior. I found that people were incredibly helpful and it became a great opportunity to learn. Since then, I’ve attended other hackathons in Vancouver and even across the country! At the very least, you get to meet interesting people and bond with your team as you struggle and learn together.
What is a hackathon not?
They are not places to show off. Everyone there is coming to experiment with new technologies and to challenge themselves. It’s an environment where everyone is a beginner.
“It’s an environment where everyone is a beginner”
How can first-timers get the most out of their experience? How about hackathon veterans?
Work with a team. Be open to new ideas and possibly doing something radically different from what you’ve done before. As for veterans, take some time beforehand to think about the problems you want to work on. With a well defined problem, it becomes much easier to get started.
Best memory from nwHacks 2017/2016/2015?
nwHacks 2016: my team was trying to get the Google Maps API to work. It was midnight and we had been working on it for a few hours. At some point, a red marker appeared and we all jumped out of our seats, cheered and hugged each other. I laugh now since all we did was get a red marker to appear but it was a moment of pure joy.
Janet Chen, 3rd year Arts
Introduce yourself
Hi y’all. My name is Janet and I am a third-year CS major and Economics minor at UBC. I dig immersive realities, diversity & inclusion initiatives, and really cool hackathons. I co-founded the largest working group for virtual and mixed reality student developers at UBC: AGDA VR. We’ve worked on some awesome projects for professors from geography, electrical engineering, medicine, and more! I was previously the coordinator at the UBC Emerging Media Lab.
What was your first hackathon experience like / tell us about your hackathon journey?
The story of my first hackathon is equal parts hilarious and equal parts absurd. The first one that I ever went to was actually nwHacks in Feb 2016 (two years ago!). I was a lost first-year who had only taken CPSC110, which meant that I knew 0 programming languages to build applications, and didn’t know much about tech. I remember applying for nwHacks and when the application surveyed my reason for attending, I replied “to learn more about tech”. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, lol.
I remember walking down the street from my dorm to the engineering buildings where nwHacks was held; seeing people holding sleeping bags, chatting with the UW students from Seattle (who later won the hackathon), and the first foray into the wild and wonderful world of hackathons. It was a little bit of scrambling, students rushing towards sponsors, swag, and Soylent. To be honest, the project that I worked on in my first hackathon is negligible — one student carried the team and our project wasn’t quite “demoable”.
I definitely do have to say that hackathons have contributed to my love of the fast pace, content creation industry of tech. Although I can’t say that I made a great product or learned much more than HTML and CSS at my first hackathon, it was a great experience.
And besides — two years later, my team placed first at Lumohacks, a hackathon held at SFU, for our VR exposure therapy app Riddikulus (http://dispellyourfear.com)
What is a hackathon not?
A controversial opinion: hackathons are not a place to abandon your mental and physical health. To be frank, I try my absolute best to not stay overnight at hackathons anymore despite how easy it is to be swept along in the hacking frenzy. But I have seen too many students turn into coughing zombies for a week after a sleep-deprived night of poor coding fuelled by unhealthy amounts of caffeine. Apply the law of diminishing returns. Every hour you take away from your precious sleep, the return on your work decreases. So, take breaks frequently and get some sleep!
How can first-timers get the most out of their experience? How about hackathon veterans?
A hackathon is a space for learning, networking, and growing. I recommend first-timers be brave and choose an area that they want to focus on during the hackathon before attending. If you want to learn Python or work with some cool APIs or simply talk to some recruiters, it’s good to prepare yourself for your goal, whether that means doing some pre-reading, printing resumes, or forming a team. As for teams, I also recommend having at least one friend that you’re comfortable working with.
“I recommend first-timers be brave and choose an area that they want to focus on during the hackathon before attending”
Best memory from nwHacks 2017/2016/2015?
Last year, my team created a hilarious game called the Golden Quest (http://thegoldenquest.net) where gamers have to use their own voice commands to navigate the treacherous waters of the choose-your-own-adventure Amazon Alexa game. We play-tested it with mentors, friends, and complete strangers. One of the lines that they have to say if they reach this part of the game is: “I pee my pants in defiance.” I doubt that many memories can top this one.
Em Sales, 3rd year Science
Introduce yourself
I’m Em (Emmanuel Sales), a 3rd year computer science and stats student at UBC. I’ve been programming since I was 14 years old and have always loved building my own projects. I’ve attended every nwHacks since it started in 2015.
What was your first hackathon experience like / tell us about your hackathon journey?
My first hackathon experience was actually nwHacks 2015 when I was in grade 12. As a high school kid who didn’t know anyone to form a team with, I ended up joining a team of people I met at the hackathon. The API we were using was pretty broken so we had to reverse engineer a lot of the stuff and we were able to finish, which was really fulfilling! I’ve since attended every nwHacks since then — had some failures and some successes — was always fun.
What is a hackathon not?
Hackathons shouldn’t be about making anything particularly groundbreaking. For me, hackathons are primarily about having fun with fellow technical people and building cool projects over the course of a weekend. In a field as career focused and competitive as CS, it could be nice to remind yourself and a bunch of friends that programming and building things can still be really fun.
How can first-timers get the most out of their experience? How about hackathon veterans?
First-timers: Don’t panic. There are a lot of amazingly technically proficient people around you, and you can literally look around to see what amazing projects they’re doing. This can certainly be nerve-wracking! But know that the reason why you’re here is the amazing feeling about the process of building something. The feeling of writing code — of building something out of a composition of simple statements — is already something special. Build something that you know you’re capable of within the time frame so that you can maximize your effectiveness, and be confident in your finished product, no matter how simple it might have turned out!
Vets: You’ve made it this far. Maybe you’ve had some success stories or maybe you’ve had a few failures in your past hackathons. Either way you’ve already learned a ton about the experience and you’re on a better footing now. If you have an idea that resonates with you, no matter how crazy, go for it. Even if you don’t know if it’ll be useful, it’s important to recognize that the point of a 24 hour hackathon is to continue to enjoy the process. It might be hard to keep this goal in your sights after so many hackathons, but it’s the one thing that you shouldn’t forget. Whether that something speaks to you because you think it’ll change the world or if you just want to try a cool new piece of tech, remember to continue to make your experience your own.
“… it’s important to recognize that the point of a 24 hour hackathon is to continue to enjoy the process”
Best memory from nwHacks 2017/2016/2015?
2017. It’s 9 AM. One of my teammates is passed out, head in his arms. The rest of us take selfies with his slumbering form. He’s just finished pushing the last of his important changes, but we’re ready to wake him up if we still need to debug. I start to feel that everything is coming together. The four of us had been working on this weird “kill cockroaches on screen to stress test a CockroachDB cluster” idea for the past 20 or so hours, and after many trials and tribulations we feel we’re about to place the last pieces of the puzzle together. I reflect on the fact that we each were luckily able to attack a different fourth of the project and make it come together beautifully. After last year’s abject failure it feels like we’ve all conquered our demons. I stand in awe of my friends’ skills and they also commend me for mine. The quirky game we made with our brains and sweat hums along, and it feels magical.
Don’t forget to apply to nwHacks as a participant, volunteer or mentor by November 30th! We look forward to seeing you there 🤖
