Siva's blog

I went to ‘Save the Hacker’ (2nd edition) last week and had a great experience. My partner-in-crime (Gokul a.k.a Taka) shared the experience and would like to share it with you all.

For a guy aspiring to be an entrepreneur, save the hacker was an appropriate platform to understand, what we, as a team can do in a little over 24 hours. We have to admit, it was not bed of roses for us. We had little/no exposure to hackathon events. The event started around 10 AM and with adrenaline rushing to start building the prototype, we jumped right into coding. Keyboards tapping at a rapid phase, people seldom leaving their places, headphones hanging around more than fifty percent of participants, the air was filled with enthusiasm. We expected a bit of chatter, after all there were 300 + participants. But what we got was total silence, people focused at their ideas , a sheer concentration .

We started up slowly, dividing our idea into three modules: Siva(Backend guy), Ramo( A complex module of converting photos to video) and myself (Android development). We rapidly started building the prototype and by 8PM, we had working modules. And then came, the heartbreak.

We were not able to integrate everything and modules when put together were erroring out. We tried many things, had dinner, had awesome idly bars, drank coke, kept ourselves awake through the night . Ramo walked us through different approaches that we could take. At 5PM, I could no longer go on and while Siva was explaining different idea, I barely could keep up and in 5 min, I was snoring.

I was woken up by chit chat from other two team-mates and I could see a glimmer of hope in their eyes. They seemed refreshed and were working towards a different solution. I joined up, chipped in. In 2 hours, we built the prototype, with different logic and there was a brief moment of adrenaline rushing through our veins. And alas, we were able to build the prototype. Though UI was very much crude, the judges liked the underlying idea and gave their suggestions.

It was time for the results. We knew we would not make it but there is always a part in us, which says, you still have a chance. But that was not the case this time. With heads held high that we had a working prototype, we took the OLA cab that was sponsored by freshdesk and 2 min inside, I could literally hear, Siva snoring. He had not slept for over 34 hours.

Though we could not make it top 11 teams, we were glad that we could accomplish our task (Building the prototype). We are very much thankful for fresh desk for going through with such an initiative. If they are able to host such an event every year and be in par with the quality of the event, in few years, it would be one of the greatest hackathon events.

What else can a coder ask for? Air-conditioned place to code, unlimited coke/snacks, awesome free food and lots of swag, free networking with like-minded people.

For now, we have set our eyes on winning the next hackathon.

The idea that we worked on: http://community.savethehacker.com/support/discussions/topics/5000048735

Original Post : http://stormlight.in/blog/index.php/2015/05/12/experience-at-save-the-hacker-edition-two/