A year of MLH hackathons

Tl:dr; Hackathons are one of the best places to transform ideas into reality. Usually within a 24 to 36 hour timeframe with designated themes, it is a great space to create innovative projects.

My sticker collection from a year of hackathons and experiences.

In One Year

I am a computer science and technology enthusiast with a passion for hackathons. In just one year, I've attended eleven hackathons in cities like Atlanta, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal, collaborating with 16 talented hackers from diverse backgrounds. Through these events, I've honed my programming skills, learned about new technologies, and been inspired by the creativity and innovation at these 36-hour coding marathons.

My First Full Hackathon Experience

My first full-hackathon experience was at Hack Georgia Tech which was an incredibly satisfying project to build and create. It was surreal to go to a different university campus and meet the computer science community there.

I was part of a dynamic team where we met online from our similar interest to make a hardware project. A full-day on Saturday, we worked seamlessly to bring a project to life. In our case, it was a guitar voltage reading device that would detect if sound was played. If it was played for a certain time, it would release Candy with a candy dispenser. We had access to Georgia Tech's "Hive" Maker Space was wonderful. With the help of the university's laser cutter, I was able to refine my laser cutting skills and master new techniques. Despite facing challenges, we were able to create a functional and visually stunning candy dispenser, made even better by the addition of seamless programming. This project will always be a source of pride for me and a testament to the power of teamwork and determination.

It made a huge difference to sleep at the hackathon venue to work on the project and go a far, which made me focus on wanting to create the best project possible. It was also my first all nighter and last.

Highlight: Building a project!

McHacks

It was my first hackathon where I used an API call. It was wonderful with my partner, Mike, and learn APIs for the first time. My partner wanted to create a Chrome extension, and since it was our first time, we spent a good couple of hours playing around with it and getting it working. After, we wanted to use it to get ingredients from a sponsor website, Radish - a grocery store. After, we would use the recipes to generate a recipe using Cohere's Natural Language Processing (NLP) API. It worked so we added the next complexity - a Dalle AI generated image of the dish. That worked too! (several hours later) At 1 am on Sunday, we added one more feature, a Twilio SMS API which would send the recipe to the phone. What an incredible project, and we made it to Top 5!

Highlight: Used three APIs for the first time creating an exciting project!

LumiGUI, my first hackathon overall win.

MHacks

Presentation is king! We spent a few hours (starting around 2 am on the Sunday) filming and taking photos of the final product.

Lessons learned eleven hackathons later:

• Always do something new at a hackathon! It makes it exciting and adds freshness and value every time
• Appreciate and meet the hackathon community. It is like-minded people all in one venue at a time. It is a great place to work collaboratively to create a wonderful project
• Work in a team! You are able to do projects at a larger scale and have fresh eyes.

Despite doing eight in a span of two months (every weekend), it was great to experience the learning process and meet the community. It was the highlight of my 2022 year, and I'm really proud to have worked