So over the last weekend, Hackathon@SG happened and me and a bunch of friends just decided to go ahead and take part in our very first hackathon. This was apparently the largest hackathon in Singapore, jointly organised by Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) as well as the Information Technology Standards Commitee (ITSC).

To be honest, we were a bunch of inexperienced students who were just there for the experience and fun. The challenge was to build something that resonated with the theme SmartNation, given that Singapore was turning 50 this year and we are trying to move forward with the tech age.

So we had a few hardware devices that we could work with: Google Cardboard, Razer Nabu X, Tweeq, VR One, or simply open data. Basically we had to come up with a solution to problems faced across various sectors such as living, healthcare, business and education. We all agreed on working with the Nabu X, mainly due to the ease of software implementation and the practicality of the solution. Also cause wearables have become all the craze right now.

So the Nabu X is pretty much the same as any other fitness band out in the market, except for one feature called the “Handshake”. Basically this feature allows for two Nabu devices to communicate with one another. SO we decided to make use of this feature in an app we named “Zink”.

Basically what Zink does, is that it allows for users to exchange digital business cards, through the means of a handshake, eliminating the need for a real business card. This allows for users to really involve themselves in conversations and establishing a repertoire as compared to focusing on exchanging contacts for future communication.

Not too complex an idea, and we thought on making it a user friendly application. End of the day, it was about having a good learning experience so we did not want to over complicate the idea.

So 24 hours passed by, with a few naps and a lot of code and coffee in the middle. Presentation time came and we put up a little presentation of our prototype and went home, glad that the thing got over and we could get some good sleep. To our surprise, the next day we got the news that we made it to the finals. What??? How??! And out of 150 over teams in the student category, we had made it to the top 10. It was humbling, and shocking, since this was all of our first times in a hackathon, and this was supposed to be the best minds in Singapore coming together to compete their hacking skills.

So two days ago was the final presentation, where we presented the same project in front of close to 30 judges , all from varying fields and walks of life. Was not an easy one, as we got shot down numerous number of times by various judges. We fought hard, but we knew that our idea could only go so far without much implementation in the prototype itself.

We went on to take a look at the other projects, and damn, it was humbling indeed. Some of these guys had come up with really concrete and amazing ideas in the span of 24 hours. Fitness apps which used machine learning to figure out what exercise you were doing, networking apps which tracked human flow using MAC address tracking, and a bunch of 15 year old kids had come up with a augmented reality remote control using the VR one. WOW. Simply amazing. These guys were all my age or much younger and they were creating these amazing pieces of technology. And that’s when winning did not matter as much, as being given the opportunity to be amongst these talented individuals and know and realise how much more room for learning and improvement there is.

Looking forward to such opportunities again, and hope to constantly find such opportunities which allow me to understand how limited my abilities are and give me insight into the massive room for growth and improvement.

Keep glitching! (: