Hackathon- Learning Experiences of the Future

when I discovered that MCIC (Michael Crouch Innovation Centre, UNSW Sydney) was having a hackathon (Learning Experiences of the Future) that revolved around Learning Experiences,  I knew I HAD to participate!

The Heroes programme had pushed us to innovate. It pushed us to work on a problem that we as students experienced. It was a programme that stretched for over 6 weeks and we worked on an idea during that period. The MCIC Hackathon, on the other hand, was a 2.5 days intensive event. The Global Game Jam was the closest experience that I had to a hack, so I was pretty excited for the MCIC Hack from my previous experience. 

On Friday, we were introduced to the topic and had some interesting talks by experienced practitioners in the UX field. We mingled with other participants which helped us to know one another and form groups that we were comfortable with. The free drinks helped. 

On Saturday, we worked on trying to find a problem. In the morning we were encouraged by the good people at MCIC to get us started by having a brainstorming activity. Our team chose a nice conference room in the building and we started working on a problem statement. We wanted to really “nail the problem”, as one of my teammates put it. It wasn’t easy narrowing down on what we wanted to work on. It was at around 5pm that we had our “Voila!” moment. Thanks to the numerous mentors who were available for the duration of the Hackathon, we stayed on track and were high on motivation. 

Working over 10 hours per day on the problem wasn’t easy when you have to keep the brain functional. We were to present our ideas on Sunday at 5:30pm. We didn’t rush at any point, but we were always working under pressure. Unfortunately, we did not get the time to practice our presentation and that is partly where we came short. Nevertheless, we ended up winning third!