My First Hackathon — A Story
Below is a story of my experience participating in my first-ever hackathon.
My heart pounds as I walk into PayPal headquarters. I am nervous and tense as I see numerous adults talking with one another. One part of me wants to stay while another part wants to go back home. Not really sure what to expect, I am quickly prompted towards the registration booth where I need to write my name. Feeling shy, my dad quickly tells my name to the person who is registering me. After what seems like hours, I have registered for my first hackathon. I then walk inside with my dad where I see all sorts of amazing companies, like Google and Firebase, and breathtaking gadgets and innovations, like handmade 3d printers, are on display. Even with an endless maze of adults, I still haven’t been able to strike up any sort of conversation. Not really sure what to do next, I walk into the main hall where the pitch session is finally about to start.
Once the organizer finally gets everyone inside, he describes the rules of the hackathon, “You will have 24 hours to code an idea from concept to prototype.”I start thinking of some ideas that I can work on. Then suddenly after brainstorming with my dad for a couple of minutes, an idea hits me, a problem that I have been thinking about solving for a while, a daily challenge that I and millions of others have been facing: bullying. The next step is to pitch the idea to the audience, over 500 developers from across the Bay Area.
Emotions rush through my body as I wait in line to go on stage. Thoughts race through my mind. How will I do? Will I mess up? As the line gets shorter and shorter, and my turn gets closer and closer, I become more and more nervous. Adrenaline runs through my body, head to toe, as I am afraid, nervous, and worried, all at the same time. I’m so scared that I am already forgetting the lines of what I should say. What will happen? Will I remember to say everything? Finally, as all these thoughts are racing through my brain, it is my turn to make my pitch. I walk onto the stage with my notebook and pen, feeling both determined and scared. When I finally look up to speak to the audience, it seems like even more people than I had imagined. Without having more time to think much more, I quickly start my one minute pitch, trying to be as true to my heart, saying things that I feel as a kid. Hi, my name is Yash and I am going into 5th grade. I have an idea called BullyWatch, it is an app to stop bullying in schools. Bullying is a huge problem in schools, and millions of kids suffer from this problem every single day. I am looking for developers who can come on my team to help me. Thank you. I am done, feeling great relief as I have just finished my speech.
This is a video of my full presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2FLcccxx-o
Excitement runs through my body as I receive thundering applause from the audience. I feel so proud and confident as I have attacked all the fear that I once had. As I walk outside to grab a cup of water, I am greeted by numerous adults asking questions such as, “Are you the 10-year old who wants to create a watch to stop bullying in schools?” Both happy and nervous, I say, “Yes.” I feel proud that I am solving a problem that millions of kids face on a daily basis. Finally not feeling afraid to talk, I start recruiting people to come on my team, to help develop this idea into a reality. On my team, I know that I need some programmers and designers to help make this app. Knowing that even though today was a huge success, tomorrow would be even harder. As I am leaving Paypal headquarters to get some sleep for tomorrow, I have captured the incredible feeling of courage in my long journey ahead.
The next morning, I walk in with my dad, ready to program my idea. The organizer of the event says that you can use any of the rooms on the first and second floors. As I walk up the stairs into the room, I develop a plan of attack on how to create this idea. The first thing that I work on trying to create is a basic proof of concept on how the app would work (for the hackathon I was creating an app that would model a watch). First, the watch would start out as the color white, which would indicate to everyone around them that the student is feeling okay. If at any time they feel bullied the person can tap or hold the button for one second where it turns to the color orange, indicating to everyone around them that they feel bullied. In most cases, the bully would realize and then back off but if they do not, the user can hold down the watch for three seconds, and it turns to the color red, sending one’s GPS coordinates to a supervisor at the school.
Excited that I have developed a fully fleshed idea, I am ready to move to the next part, which is to write the code. I first start coding in a block-based coding system called Gamesalad. My dad and I spend the next couple of hours trying to debug and write the program ourselves. The problem that I soon realize is that Gamesalad doesn’t have enough functionality to code the features that I need. I have run into a wall, and I am not sure what to do next. Thinking to myself, It is around 4:00 pm, and I have not made any progress to my project. I am stuck. That is when suddenly a transformational moment occurs: I get some advice from a developer to code this app in a new coding language called Swift. After listening to the developer's advice, I research and learn some of the basics of Swift. After a couple of hours, I am able to create a basic structure of the app.
Now the app is able to switch between the colors, white, orange, and red. I am excited that I had been able to create an immense part of my idea. Now I face the next problem, it is late at night and I still have not created the GPS feature. After tinkering around a little bit myself, I am still not able to figure out how to create the feature. So finally, I am able to get the courage to walk downstairs to the main hall where I go to talk to a developer who is an expert in Xcode. Though, since I do not know many people in the hall I am not sure who to approach for help. After walking around the hall for a little bit someone finally steps in and asks if I have any questions. I tell them, I am working on creating a GPS feature for my app which is coded using Xcode. After about two hours of debugging, researching, and getting help from others, I am able to finish the entire app! I am so excited that all this hard work has paid off — I am able to make all the features that I want to. As I exit PayPal headquarters I am proud and exhilarated that tomorrow I will have a working app to demo.
The next day, as I arrive at PayPal at around 9 in the morning, I am ready to work on the final touches of the project while also means creating a three-minute demo for my app which will be presented. I am extremely stressed as the project and demo needs to be ready by 1 pm. By around 11 am I have finally finished the final parts of my app, which include testing and downloading the app to my iPhone. I have two hours to write and practice a speech that I will say to the entire audience. Time flies as I continue to refine and practice my speech. Suddenly, it is around 12:30 and lunch has come. The organizer says to grab some lunch and then the pitches will start right away. Being both anxious and tense, I decided to head back upstairs to practice my speech a couple more times. Before I know it, my parents tell me that the pitches are about to start and that I will have to head to the main hall. As I walk in the main hall, I see a massive crowd. Somehow I am able to convince myself to stay here. Before I can have second thoughts about my decision, the demos start one by one, quickly beginning and ending. Then suddenly it’s my turn, the organizer calls “Bully Watch.” As I walk onto the stage, I try to run through the lines of my three-minute speech. Before I can do anything else, the organizer tells me that I am all set and ready to go. I start my speech tense and panicked. Though, soon the words start to fall out in a rhythm, feeling more confident and ready to talk. Streaks of words continue to fall out as I run swiftly through my demo. Before I know it, the speech is done, I receive roaring applause from the audience. I exit the stage feeling jubilant that I have just finished my demo. The remaining demos go by quickly.
The last step of the hackathon is for the judges to pick the winners. After what seems like endless hours of wait both the judges and organizers walk back into the room with countless types of prizes. The long-awaited awards are about to start. Thoughts run through my brain, as anticipation flows through my heart. The organizer starts calling teams that won awards for different types of categories. I become scared, wondering whether I have won one of the prestigious awards. Then, suddenly I chain of events occur — the organizer first starts by saying the award type, Best Educational App, and then says the winner, BullyWatch! Before even being able to process the feeling of winning, I walk up to the stage to collect my award. I am super proud and thrilled that I have won my first ever hackathon. Today, not only did I experience my first taste of a new coding language, but also I took away some key life lessons. I learned how to work under pressure no matter what situation is thrown at me, but I also learned how to make a pitch and demo to a huge audience. After today, I have the confidence to carry with me in my future pitches, demos, and public speaking experiences throughout my life. As I depart PayPal headquarters I know that today was monumental, but can also feel that my coding chapter has just begun.
