Canadians love the fast pace, creative, and hectic environment of a hackathon. This past weekend was Xesto’s first official hackathon involvement, sponsoring Hack Western 4 at Western University in London, Ontario. As our first foray into hackathons, we wanted to provide the resources to help hackers build ideas they spent months (or minutes) coming up with in a mere 36 hours. With Hack Western’s theme being ‘Ideas to Reality’, we came with the perspective than anything was possible. Xesto has an intimate understanding of the value of hackathons and supporting this ecosystem — Xesto originated from our CTO Audun’s Webkin, a gesture-controlled website creation tool that won the Most Innovative Hack award at UofTHacks in 2013 and placed in the judges’ Top 10 Hacks. It is not uncommon to hear of hacker’s experiences at hackathons, but startups’ experiences at hackathons are less familiar to the community. We want to let you in on our experience, sharing our perspective on what it was like to be a startup sponsoring a university hackathon.
Day 1
At noon on November 17, we began our Hack Western journey. After running into some typical Toronto traffic leaving the city, we made it to London, Ontario at 3:30 PM. We arrived at the Althouse building on Western University’s campus and unpacked our sponsorship materials. After speaking with Hack Western’s sponsorship coordinators, we filled our booth with all of our brand materials and swag for the event. Additionally, we brought Leap Motions and VR mount accessories for hackers to sign out during the 3-day grind. Hackers could look forward to seeing the items we contributed to their swag bags to help raise awareness for our presence as a sponsor.
While Osman and I from the marketing team spoke to eager hackers about Xesto and how the company can help with their hacks, Audun made sure that our API was primed and ready for our demo at midnight. After taking some time to set up our workshop, we ran our demo at 12:30 in the morning. Teams of four checked out our API and introduced themselves to us. Audun explained the value of touchless gestures and we helped them get jumpstarted on their cool ideas.
After regrouping at our booth, we stayed late until the crack of dawn to make sure that the hackers could get their ideas off the ground. In the early hours of the morning, we went back to our AirBnB to take quick naps until the midday.
Day 2
On the second day, we spent most of our time talking to hackers and mentors, as well as getting to know our fellow sponsors at the neighbouring tables. Organizations including Accenture, Big Viking Games, Scotiabank’s Digital Factory, StdLib, the Weather Network, and many more surrounded the main cortex area at Hack Western, bringing swag, candy, and games to keep the mood fun and less stressful throughout the event. Xesto’s resident hackathon veteran Audun knows what it’s like to go through the highs and lows of a hackathon, so he was there as a general mentor helping hackers every step of the way.
Day 3
On the third and final day, we were excited to see the fruits of the weekend’s labour at the demo fair. As a result of hackers’ creativity, limited sleep, and hard work throughout the event, five teams turned their ideas into reality using the Leap Motion. They are as follows:
Signtology built a sign language learning platform using the Leap Motion.
LeapPiano built a virtual piano with the Leap Motion and a VR headset, finishing in the Top 6 Finalists.
Facile created an Internet of Things facilities management system using an Arduino and the Leap Motion, also placing in the Top 6 Finalists.
Happy Hands created a fun Leap Motion game to help stretch your hands.
Kinect4 created a gesture-controlled Connect 4 game using the Leap Motion (https://devpost.com/software/kinect4-036ugo).
While Osman and I were part of the general judging team, Audun determined who would win our sponsor prize for the Best Use of the Leap Motion. Seeing the results of all the teams’ amazing work, it was a very close decision. In the end, we awarded Signtology with Leap Motions and annual professional licenses of our API for each member of their team! We presented the award to the team at the closing ceremony.
What a Ride
Participating and supporting the type of event that spurred the development of Xesto was a very worthwhile experience. We were truly inspired by the creations that people were able to make over just 36 hours at Hack Western 4. As we continue to support developers in the future, you will see us next from January 19 to 21, 2018 at UofTHacks V, the event that started it all.
Written by Christopher Kim.
Joining the Ride
We believe that a touchless future is possible today. Xesto provides the first custom touchless gesture recognition platform for developers, allowing them to create and train touchless gestures that they can easily integrate into new or existing applications. Using our API essentially makes those applications touchless and interactive in minutes.
If you want to try it for yourself, we will be launching our Leap Motion preview release soon for Javascript and C#.
Plus, clicking the kitten will take you to a survey for an exclusive discount.
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