This was my first hackathon, and before I came I was very excited for it since I think it’s fun to work on complex problems with others. However, upon working for about an hour, I realized that most everyone had more programming experience than I, and so I couldn’t contribute very much to the group. But this challenge gave me a few opportunities to learn new things: I tried out using html and JavaScript, both of which I was unfamiliar with. I also was given the chance to learn about the company Pusher, a partner in the hackathon, and the types of real-time technologies that they have helped create. One thing I took away regarding computer science was that making and implementing a functional real-time application is drastically more complex than it may seem from the outside. I definitely didn’t realize the vast amount of moving parts involved. But overall, though I wasn’t able to help our group very much, I think I would attend again (after gaining some more experience) or go to one more suited towards beginners. Even so, I really enjoyed the concept of collaborating with a team and working at odd hours to come up with something creative and beneficial for others.
Being my first hackathon, I was very nervous on how to approach it because I was never involved in such event. An event where I would be working with other CS-related students from high-school and other colleges. I wasn’t able to contribute very much because I don’t have much prior experience in coding. But this challenge gave me a few opportunities to learn new things: I learned how to be work in a team while coding and facing problems and coming up with solutions. This gave me a glimpse of how a real-life project related to CS will be like and also an opportunity to learn from others who have more experience than me. This hackathon gave an opportunity to meet different people and collaborate with them, it helped me improve my connections and also made new friends along the way. I used my programming knowledge to help people who aren’t that comfortable and also received help from more experienced coders. Overall it was a great experience as I got involved in a completely CS-related event and community, and it was wonderful to see so many CS-related students who are trying to change the world. I would love to attend such events in the future and learn and teach and collaborate and expand my connections with other students. It gave me a glimpse of how my future would be as a proud CS-related student.
The Build Chicago Hackathon was held at TechNexus and was a great experience for all of us. It was attended by numerous CS seeking/pursuing students in Chicago and it was exciting to see so many aspiring people trying to apply CS to real world problems. The hackathon started off by several groups using their knowledge to develop a code/app that helped in solving the issue. I learnt a lot about the company – Pusher, they talked about the technological tools that they developed which are being used to solve real world problems. This experience gave us deep insights of how real time technological tools can be used to solve problems in the world and companies like Pusher explained how they are encountering this problem.
It was a great learning experience for everyone in our team although it was not successful. This hackathon made me explore more about such problems and how they can be solved and all the participants were extremely motivated and inspired by the end of the competition to explore more and learn more concepts that could be used to solve such problems. I thoroughly enjoyed this hackathon and I would love to attend more such hackathons,
Going into this Hackathon, I was honestly extremely worried. I had never personally attended a Hackathon before, and just the idea of a 24 hour event solely focused on coding was daunting to say the least. Although I had a good experience, I do think that maybe I should have started at an easier event, as I did not really feel as well equip as some of the others there (although there were some people there who did have a similar coding level to me). What I learned from this trip was how important it is to be willing admit in a group what your strengths and weakness are, as letting the others know my personal coding experience helped me find a way to help my group without going overboard. This has helped me learn more about computer science as it has allowed me to brush up on my understanding of HTML. I have worked with HTML in the past, but I was really rusty on some of the aspects, so working with it again in this event helped me regain some of my old knowledge and even gain some that I didn’t have in the past.
I think that I would maybe attend this event again, but probably after some more experience in the IIT computer science path. I definitely do want to attend more hackathons though as it was a bunch of fun and rewarding.
This was my first experience in a hackathon, most of my friends went to different events so I went by myself. I was very nervous working with people who I never met before. Although I had some previous experience in HTML and JavaScript, I learned so much more in the two days than I ever have coding by myself. In addition, I was able to experience the workflow of potentially a real job situation where collaborations lead to problems, however we solved these problems by discussing the main goal and changing our code to fit that goal. It was also very interesting to see how many of the members of my team had different coding styles than I did. I was truly intrigued by their thought process and see how they would attack certain issues in the code. This helped me understand more about computer science as it showed me that through collaboration with others any daunting task could be simplified into individual components and work like a machine when put together. Also, Pusher, the company that was present, showed us their innovations they’ve been working on, which I thought was really interesting. I would like to attend another activity similar to this event as it taught me a lot about who I am as a programmer and how others around me learn and code as well.
I had never attended a hackathon before this one. But it was something that I heard a lot from other CS students. Obviously going in I was a little nervous. But I realized it is essentially a place for kids from CS- related backgrounds to meet each other and code together. Due to my prior experience in coding, I was able to be an intimate member of the group. Even though I had prior experience in coding, I was surprised at how much I was able to learn. Since I was working in a team, I was able to learn what it is like to work and collaborate as a group to form something better. Originally, I was always used to working on assignments and labs on my own, but one thing I realized is how much partner work is encouraged in college. This is a more realistic approach of working in CS- related fields and careers. In addition, I was able to network with so many other people like me and who shared the same interest as me. It was a good opportunity to expand my range of contacts as I was able to develop friendships with people of the same major. I would say this was a very good learning experience as well as a super fun one. I got to immerse myself in a community that is in the same interest as me. After that, I even attended one more hackathon just because of how much fun I had. I will continue to attend events like these in the future.
This was my first hackathon, and before I came I was very excited for it since I think it’s fun to work on complex problems with others. However, upon working for about an hour, I realized that most everyone had more programming experience than I, and so I couldn’t contribute very much to the group. But this challenge gave me a few opportunities to learn new things: I tried out using html and JavaScript, both of which I was unfamiliar with. I also was given the chance to learn about the company Pusher, a partner in the hackathon, and the types of real-time technologies that they have helped create. One thing I took away regarding computer science was that making and implementing a functional real-time application is drastically more complex than it may seem from the outside. I definitely didn’t realize the vast amount of moving parts involved. But overall, though I wasn’t able to help our group very much, I think I would attend again (after gaining some more experience) or go to one more suited towards beginners. Even so, I really enjoyed the concept of collaborating with a team and working at odd hours to come up with something creative and beneficial for others.
Being my first hackathon, I was very nervous on how to approach it because I was never involved in such event. An event where I would be working with other CS-related students from high-school and other colleges. I wasn’t able to contribute very much because I don’t have much prior experience in coding. But this challenge gave me a few opportunities to learn new things: I learned how to be work in a team while coding and facing problems and coming up with solutions. This gave me a glimpse of how a real-life project related to CS will be like and also an opportunity to learn from others who have more experience than me. This hackathon gave an opportunity to meet different people and collaborate with them, it helped me improve my connections and also made new friends along the way. I used my programming knowledge to help people who aren’t that comfortable and also received help from more experienced coders. Overall it was a great experience as I got involved in a completely CS-related event and community, and it was wonderful to see so many CS-related students who are trying to change the world. I would love to attend such events in the future and learn and teach and collaborate and expand my connections with other students. It gave me a glimpse of how my future would be as a proud CS-related student.
The Build Chicago Hackathon was held at TechNexus and was a great experience for all of us. It was attended by numerous CS seeking/pursuing students in Chicago and it was exciting to see so many aspiring people trying to apply CS to real world problems. The hackathon started off by several groups using their knowledge to develop a code/app that helped in solving the issue. I learnt a lot about the company – Pusher, they talked about the technological tools that they developed which are being used to solve real world problems. This experience gave us deep insights of how real time technological tools can be used to solve problems in the world and companies like Pusher explained how they are encountering this problem.
It was a great learning experience for everyone in our team although it was not successful. This hackathon made me explore more about such problems and how they can be solved and all the participants were extremely motivated and inspired by the end of the competition to explore more and learn more concepts that could be used to solve such problems. I thoroughly enjoyed this hackathon and I would love to attend more such hackathons,
Going into this Hackathon, I was honestly extremely worried. I had never personally attended a Hackathon before, and just the idea of a 24 hour event solely focused on coding was daunting to say the least. Although I had a good experience, I do think that maybe I should have started at an easier event, as I did not really feel as well equip as some of the others there (although there were some people there who did have a similar coding level to me). What I learned from this trip was how important it is to be willing admit in a group what your strengths and weakness are, as letting the others know my personal coding experience helped me find a way to help my group without going overboard. This has helped me learn more about computer science as it has allowed me to brush up on my understanding of HTML. I have worked with HTML in the past, but I was really rusty on some of the aspects, so working with it again in this event helped me regain some of my old knowledge and even gain some that I didn’t have in the past.
I think that I would maybe attend this event again, but probably after some more experience in the IIT computer science path. I definitely do want to attend more hackathons though as it was a bunch of fun and rewarding.
This was my first experience in a hackathon, most of my friends went to different events so I went by myself. I was very nervous working with people who I never met before. Although I had some previous experience in HTML and JavaScript, I learned so much more in the two days than I ever have coding by myself. In addition, I was able to experience the workflow of potentially a real job situation where collaborations lead to problems, however we solved these problems by discussing the main goal and changing our code to fit that goal. It was also very interesting to see how many of the members of my team had different coding styles than I did. I was truly intrigued by their thought process and see how they would attack certain issues in the code. This helped me understand more about computer science as it showed me that through collaboration with others any daunting task could be simplified into individual components and work like a machine when put together. Also, Pusher, the company that was present, showed us their innovations they’ve been working on, which I thought was really interesting. I would like to attend another activity similar to this event as it taught me a lot about who I am as a programmer and how others around me learn and code as well.
I had never attended a hackathon before this one. But it was something that I heard a lot from other CS students. Obviously going in I was a little nervous. But I realized it is essentially a place for kids from CS- related backgrounds to meet each other and code together. Due to my prior experience in coding, I was able to be an intimate member of the group. Even though I had prior experience in coding, I was surprised at how much I was able to learn. Since I was working in a team, I was able to learn what it is like to work and collaborate as a group to form something better. Originally, I was always used to working on assignments and labs on my own, but one thing I realized is how much partner work is encouraged in college. This is a more realistic approach of working in CS- related fields and careers. In addition, I was able to network with so many other people like me and who shared the same interest as me. It was a good opportunity to expand my range of contacts as I was able to develop friendships with people of the same major. I would say this was a very good learning experience as well as a super fun one. I got to immerse myself in a community that is in the same interest as me. After that, I even attended one more hackathon just because of how much fun I had. I will continue to attend events like these in the future.