Most of you folks may have participated in various hackathons, but have you ever wondered what it takes to organize one? 🤔 As one of the organizers, I had the privilege of witnessing the incredible journey of our event, Hackman v6, from start to finish. 👀
Hackman v6 is an annual 24-hour hackathon conducted by the Department of ISE, DSCE on June 24th-25th, 2023. It provides the brightest minds with a chance to brainstorm as a team, come up with unique solutions, code them out, and solve some of the pressing problems of our society. 💡💻
Intro:
The planning for the event started back in April 2023, where we began forming teams, deciding the theme of the hackathon, establishing a budget, seeking sponsors, designing posters, building websites, devising PR strategies, obtaining permissions from the college, inviting mentors and judges, and planning the schedule, among other tasks. 🗓️💡💼
Due to various reasons like exams and placements, we were not as active until the last three weeks of Hackman. However, what we accomplished in those three weeks is truly incredible. 🚀🏆
Highlights:🌟
We secured Unibic, HueLearn, Vendo Smart, 50 Fin, and Bullz as sponsors. 🎉💼
We invited mentors from PhonePe, Amazon, Open Craft, Luma Chain, and others. 🤝👩🏫👨🏭
We received 170 registrations from 46 teams in less than a week, leading us to close registrations due to logistical constraints. 📝📈
We raised funds and had a prize pool of 37K, as well as provided internship opportunities to participants. 💰🏅🎓
Challenges we encountered: 💪🚧
Getting Sponsors
Initially, we faced difficulties in raising enough funds to organize the event. However, the entire team came together, regardless of their assigned tasks, and worked towards securing funds. Eventually, we managed to gather enough funds from the college and sponsors to conduct the event. 💸🤝
Check-In System Crash
We developed a web app to streamline attendance tracking and manage food distribution using QR technology. However, the night before the event, the app crashed due to mismatched peer dependencies. We had to stay up all night to fix it, and by 5:45 AM, we managed to push the application to production, and it worked. 😴🔧💻
Internet Issues
Initially, we were unable to provide the required internet bandwidth to participants during the first two hours. We were assured that we had been allocated 500Mbps, but when we connected directly to the LAN, we only got 10Mbps for a single connection. Additionally, the router designed to connect 32 devices couldn't connect to more than 9 devices, and the ACL was not working. To solve this, we brought new routers from EDP and connected them to the main server in the DSLD lab, providing a stable internet connection to the participants. 🌐📶🔌
These were just a few of the challenges we faced and overcame while organizing this hackathon.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, organizing a hackathon is a challenging yet rewarding endeavor. The journey from the initial planning stages to the successful execution of the event is filled with hurdles and obstacles that require determination, teamwork, and problem-solving skills. 🌟🤝💪
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