A very brief description of my first official Hackathon - NITK HackVerse
Talking about my first experience,It was a rollercoaster ride with up’s and down’s but most importantly left me with some ever ending memories.
In order to attend the Hackathon I had to apply for it through my Devfolio account. I was very lucky to be selected as I had applied just hours before the application deadline and my idea got accepted.
Three First years, including me and three seniors were selected for the Hackathon from my college. We decided to attend the Hackathon which is to be held at NITK - Surathkal. We booked tickets for the journey, ready to Hack !
Four of us boarded from Kayamkulam, a day before the Hackathon so that we could freshen up and be prepared before the hack starts. The rest two followed us the next day.
It was my first experience visiting one of the NIT’s and I was over the moon. However the expectations were short lived once we saw the accommodation provided to us.We were given beds and were asked to sleep on the floors. The room had just 2 plug-ins in the two corners and we found it extremely difficult to charge our devices as well as with the unbearable mosquito bites.
The worst part about the accommodations were the restrooms, which were dirty and lacked sanitation.
However we decided to stay there for a night and move to a nearby hotel room. The next day, we went out in search of hotels,but unfortunately none of them had rooms available. We ended up were we started.
The day before the Hackathon we had a tour around the campus with the student organizers of the Hackathon. The rest part of the day, we spent our time in the Central Library working.
Finally the day came! It was Hack day, just hours before my first Hackathon gets underway. We were escorted to the center through college buses.
We had decided upon the teams before and divided ourselves into 2 equally good teams.We registered for reimbursement and got our ID”s for the Hackathon.
The Hackathon was scheduled to be held for 2 days. We were provided with food coupons for the next two days to cope with our hunger.
The initial part of the Hackathon started with the inauguration ceremony and consisted of 3 lectures. We were surprised to hear that out of a total of 2000 applicants only 240 of us were selected.
At 4:00pm we were asked to group into teams and move towards the halls for work. The deadline for the Hackathon was 24hrs so we had to work our ass off to get something productive.
I was part of team Fruit Salad; yes a Fruit Salad ;) We were a team of 3 consisting of 2 first years and a senior from 4th year.
We decided upon an idea to work : An Emotion Detector app! An app which recognizes a persons expressions and emotions and interprets his mood.e The data is processed and is made into stats upon which a solution depending upon the mood is provided.
We started working, however that doesn’t mean we have to work like machines for the whole time - we were provided with refreshments and game centres to get rid of stress. We were also allowed to take power-naps in between. We had to work for the whole day including midnight work.
We started a network, met new people and old friends and enjoyed our time.The next day was Republic Day and we had a flag hosting ceremony as well as a march past.Later on, we continued with our work as we had to complete before 24hrs.
We were assessed by judges from highly reputed MNC’s and Tech Companies who were extremely friendly and open with us.
Even though we were not able to complete our work, I was able to learn a lot of stuff,meet new people and experience a Hackathon.
The best part about the Hackathon for me were the tees,merch,goodies and most importantly the stickers.We were provided with 4 tees and a lot of stickers. It was an unforgettable experience for me,something which will stay with me forever, from the beginning to the end.
We are on our way back to College and I’m quoting my thoughts while waiting for my train back at 3:20 AM.
ThankYoU!