Coming in as a freshman to Carnegie Mellon, my only knowledge of this thing called a "hackathon" was a vague, fuzzy notion that nerdy engineering and computer science students pulled all-nighters typing madly at a computer.
Well, I was kind of right.
I registered for HackCMU on a whim when I saw it on Facebook. Why not? They said specifically it was designed for beginners with little to no experience (ME!!), and one of my friends had been going on and on about how much fun hackathons are.
I showed up last Friday for the sign-in with no idea what I was in for. A full day later, I, along with my team, had created three working apps running on Android and iOS devices, connected with a server, and our project had been selected as the Google prize winner.
1. Sleep is for the Weak
Going into the hackathon, I definitely thought to myself, "I'll sleep, like, 6 hours, and I'll totally be fine." Like an idiot, I'd planned to go whitewater rafting the next day and decided I'd need to be rested up for that. But nope! I ended up sleeping less than 2 hours in the 28 hours that we were there. Not only did we have quite a bit to do, but there were too many amazing side opportunities to pass up for sleep (see below for details).
2. Caffeine Is a Must
I was that kid in high school who always got 8 hours of sleep and never needed caffeine. But in order to pull off almost no sleep for 36 hours (the hackathon didn't start until Friday afternoon, so everyone had classes Friday as well), I managed to down half a cup of coffee and a mocha latte. Not the worst idea I've ever had: luckily, because I usually drink very little caffeine, it was enough to keep me up. Some students were so tolerant of caffeine that they had several Red Bulls to stay awake.
3. The More Calories the Better
In order to stay up for those long hours, our bodies burn way more calories than usual. In order to keep up and eat quickly, almost all the participants downed several bags of chips and chocolate bars. But hey, who says no to chocolate?
4. Network!
Hackathons are filled with sponsors and mentors from lots of companies. Google, Ebay, and Microsoft were all present at HackCMU. No better time to show off your skills to recruiters than when madly working on code or modifying hardware! As a result of one of the connections I made, I now have an interview for a summer internship in San Francisco.
5. Don't Be Afraid to Ask for Help
At all hackathons, and especially ones geared towards beginners, there are plenty of mentors roaming around ready to explain how a few lines of code interact, or the best way to transmit data from one app to another.
My group came in with almost no coding experience. In fact, only one of us had ever been to a hackathon. However, with the help of mentors, we managed to write three apps and transmit data between them using a service none of us had ever heard of before. No need to get frustrated. Just ask!
6. Make Friends because the People are Amazing
It's quite a unique group of people who decides it would be fun to stay up all night playing with code and hardware technology. Among this group are insanely passionate and interesting people who never fail to come up with awesome conversation. Some of my favorite memories from that night were created when I stopped working and just looked for someone to talk to, bonding over our lack of sleep and technology we were working on. Now I regularly see the friends I made around campus and we always check up on projects that we're working on.
7. Expect the Unexpected
When trying to build a new technology in such a short period of time, it's inevitable that things won't work perfectly the first time, or maybe even the tenth time. That's totally fine, though. Things that don't work are part of the learning process and why we hack in the first place.
My group became known as that "pressure sensor group" because apparently that's a strange request to make in the middle of the night. After we couldn't get any of those, we requested help for "someone who knows how to code for android, iOS, and connect all with PubNub." Though (surprisingly?) we didn't find anyone with that particular skill set, a mentor set us on the right track and we fixed the problem.
8. No Idea is Too Crazy or Weird
Some of the best presentations at the end came out of projects that seemed a little outlandish or strange at the beginning. Perhaps the most memorable was an app that turned your phone "literally into an airplane!!" or the one that turned phones into lasers for laser tag. Watching everyone else give their presentations was inspiring and fun, even though most of the audience was about to fall over from sleep deprivation.
9. Not Showering is Totally Okay
By the end of the hackathon, most of us had been wearing the same clothes for almost two days and hadn't showered or even brushed our teeth. It was so worth it, though. We were all tousle-headed at the end, but happy and fulfilled. We did what we set out to do, and those little sacrifices were worth it.
10. The Prizes are Awesome
And of course, to sweeten the deal, sponsors and event planners hand out prizes at the end to the teams they thought did the best. Specific criteria varied by prize, and they were awesome motivation to keep working. Some of the prizes included Oculus Rift devices, Leap controllers, iWatches (!!), and Amazon gift cards. My team and I won a Google Cardboard, a intro to virtual reality accessory for smartphones that makes VR accessible to people.
Overall, it was an amazing experience that I'm so glad I had. Hackathons aren't just for CS majors and engineers—as a Cognitive Science major, I can totally attest to that. In fact, the most important part is brainstorming and problem solving which anyone can do. I'm already working on new ideas for the next hackathon. It's sure to be bigger and better. I can't wait!
