PTC • Feb 4, 2022

Hack your tomorrow

Hack Your Tomorrow had over 180 participants from all around the world. Working in teams or as individuals, attendees got to choose to compete in either a business, healthcare or tech category. They were prompted by case studies and had to propose solutions to help achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The hackathon ran from February 4th, 2022 to February 6th, 2022 and participants had 48 hours to work on their projects.

On Friday, the hackathon started off with a workshop from Centered, where we learnt how to utilize Centered to stay in the flow. Centered was generous enough to offer all of our hackers a free trial of their premium app features, which our hackers utilized throughout the hackathon week to create successful projects! After our hackers learned how to stay in the flow, they attended a workshop run by Aadar Gupta, a second year student at the University of Waterloo, about how they can program their idea. For many of our first-time hackers, and even returning ones, this was the perfect way to get the hackathon started. This concluded the events for the day as eager hackers then received their case and proceeded to work on their projects with their team.

On the second day of the hackathon, we started off with a workshop from Echo3D. Our speaker, Alon Grinshpoon, taught us how to “Build a Cloud-Connected AR/VR App in 15 Minutes or Less.” Later on, we had Priya Darshini, a Robotics Process Automation Solutions Architect who got recognized as the Most Valuable Professional by UiPath in both 2019 and 2020, to introduce UiPath and its Robotic Process Automation software.

After that, our hackers had the opportunity to listen to Matthew Adams, a Data Analyst with the Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute and a mathematics PhD candidate at the University of Calgary. He walked us through his passion for programming and how he was able to become who he is today.

Lastly, we finished the day off with a UI/UX workshop run by Alyssa Rusk and Felipe Patarroyo Singh. Both students at Simon Fraser University, they are studying Computer Science and Sustainable Energy Engineering, respectively. They emphasized the importance of presenting information, educating marginalized communities on the SDGs, and how UI/UX design plays a crucial role in helping us achieve this. Later that night, the hackers competed in a Kahoot competition and got to socialize amongst each other.

On Sunday, the final day of the hackathon, attendees focused on finishing their projects and submitting them before the deadline. They were then called into judging rooms where they pitched and demoed their projects to the judges. Their hacks were evaluated on factors such creativity, feasibility, and presentation skills. After the judging process, attendees enjoyed a few games of Kahoot while the judges discussed the scores. For our final guest speaker of the weekend, we had Professor N. Asokan, a professor at the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, who introduced the topic of “Confidence in AI systems: Can we trust AI-based systems.” This led to our closing ceremony where honorable mentions and winners were announced, concluding the weekend.

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