If youâve been to a hackathon, what is your most memorable moment or challenge you faced? How did you overcome it? If not, what excites you most about attending your first hackathon and what do you hope to achieve and experience
For Terrahacks, I remember my coffee machine bursting as I tried to rebuild the frontend APIs at 4am. The frontend was fixed by reverting to a better build and then readding the previous components. I remember a lot of issues with streamlit - specifically it not being able to store session variable. I used cookies instead as a quick solution, spent a lot of time reading documentation. This was my first web-app project, so everything was new. It helped that I wasnât the most lost, and I could teach my teammates something aswell. I really enjoyed the networking events and booths. I tried really hard to get a free shirt, but they did everything in their power to prevent me. Really, group projects in general are fun.
Why do you want to participate in NewHacks?
Iâd like to come primarily because hackathons are the best way to network with other people. Im hoping to meet other brilliant minds and connect with mentors who can teach me more about low-level programming and systems security. Iâd also want to learn more about blockchain, AI and web development. I have been keeping up with recent tech news and I would love to talk about where the industry is going with fellow developers.
What is your technical experience with software and hardware?
I have developed desktop software for windows with python and java and linux apps with C. I also have designed and soldered my own keyboard. I play CTFs regularly - specifically reverse code engineering challenges. I have also done novice AI and machine learning projects in computer vision, NLP and neural networks.
What role do you typically take on in a team setting? Give an example of how you contributed to team success.
I tend to take project lead, or presentation lead. I can provide clarity and confidence in professional presentations and a general knowledge of all many technologies as a byproduct of playing CTFs. During the initial workshopping and planning phases (R&D??). I always use excalidraw to brainstorm and organize ideas, I do this so that I can easily see how ideas are linked when developing plans. If I must criticize why an idea feels bad, I must look at the root node. I am a critical person, and I address problems as soon as they appear. Obviously working with a team means that there are some ideas I disagreed with, but during the presentation phase, I was able to improvise reasons as to why this arguably useless feature are necessary! I can present at a high-level, give insight into the practical applications of the software aswell as being able to explain the technical details of how our software solves these problems.