Above, the slideshow my group presented at Hyphen-Hacks 2023 on September 29th is attached. For this post, I wanted to briefly record my experience at my very first hackathon.

Honestly, coming into the hackathon, I didn’t know what to expect – I had never participated in any programming competitions, and so I walked into the Bothin Gymnasium with only a set of very uninformed expectations, most of which I found out to be false throughout the fourteen hours I was there.

The first misconception I had was that hackathons were all about ruthless competition and masterfully cutthroat coding. I imagined a room full of genius programmers frantically typing lines of code for hours on end, racing against the clock with no time for camaraderie or collaboration. But, as soon as I arrived, I realized how wrong I was. People were friendly, eager to help each other, and excited to share their knowledge. It wasn’t about outsmarting each other; it was about collectively creating something amazing. In the same vein, I found that hackathons are incredibly inclusive. There were participants of all skill levels, including beginners coding games in p5.js (this was especially encouraged by the Hyphen-Hacks team).

Another expectation I had was that hackathons were all about coding and programming, with little room for creativity, something that I found the be somewhat untrue. We were encouraged to think outside the box, come up with innovative solutions, and design user-friendly interfaces. In addition, I was pleasantly surprised by the supportive environment. Mentors and organizers were readily available to answer questions, provide guidance, and even teach new skills. There was a caveat to this focus on creativity however, in that all of winning projects were extremely similar to existing projects available to the public.

The most challenging part of the hackathon was the time constraint. At first, fourteen hours seemed like a lot of time, but as we delved into our project, time flew by. We had to prioritize tasks, make quick decisions, and adapt to unexpected challenges (the largest of which was that the entire front-end had to be done in JavaScript).

As the clock ticked down, the atmosphere in the gym became electric, with teams were scrambling to put finishing touches on their projects, rehearsing presentations, and getting ready to showcase their hard work. The excitement was really surprising, and I was glad to see our project come together just in time.

In the end, our team’s project might not have won any prizes, but that wasn’t really the point. Although cheesy, the real prize to me was the knowledge gained, the teamwork created, and the lived experience of having created something from scratch in a high-pressure, collaborative environment.

So, if you’re like me and have never participated in a hackathon before, I encourage you to give it a try. You might be surprised by how much you learn, the connections you make, and the incredible sense of accomplishment that comes from bringing an idea to life in just a few hours. I’m already looking forward to my next hackathon adventure!