Review of Completing 3 Hackathons in a Month

I’ve had quite a busy time lately. It’s been over a month since I officially joined the company, with coffee chats and watching performances. On top of that, there were three hackathons in a row.

July 29 SPARCS Hackathon (4 days)
August 9 Junction Asia 2024 (3 days)
August 24 GDSC KAIST Hackathon (2 days)

It could have been physically demanding, but fortunately, I didn’t run out of energy. Thanks to coffee and energy drinks, I managed to stay alert(!). Most importantly, I met great team members, so there was no stress from collaboration.

Creating Technical Breakthroughs

Collaboration is always challenging. There might be team members who don’t fit well. Since we have to create a product in a short time, communication needs to be concise. I learned how to collaborate in each hackathon.

My position is frontend, and I was responsible for technical breakthroughs. In this GDSC KAIST Hackathon, we created a 3D web game using R3F, a concept I hadn’t seen in the five hackathons I’ve experienced so far. Thanks to good planning and overcoming technical difficulties, we won an excellence award.

Responsibility

Frontend is crucial in hackathons. It’s the area that needs work until the end, and since it’s the visible function, everything must work smoothly. Especially when demos or usability are part of the judging criteria, attention to detail is essential.

To focus on details and complete development in a short period, responsibility is important. Especially when I’m the only one handling frontend, I have to ensure the overall completeness. It’s a burden, but by solving problems with responsibility, I gained confidence. This confidence led to more responsibility and problem-solving, creating a virtuous cycle.

In all the hackathons I’ve participated in, I learned responsibility by completing products. Personally, I like the theory that “the result of collaboration is not the sum of individual capabilities but their multiplication,” and hackathons perfectly align with this theory.

If even one person’s capability becomes zero, the entire team’s capability becomes zero. Naturally, each person has to do their part or more, making hackathons a format where you can learn quickly.

The Atmosphere of Hackathons

I love the unique atmosphere of hackathons. Among them, the atmosphere of Junction is unforgettable. In a large space with 300 people, the daily lofi EDM and delicious snacks were captivating, different from other hackathons I’ve attended.

Both SPARCS and GDSC hackathons were held at KAIST. Having visited a few times, I was quite familiar with it. As expected, it had the challenging atmosphere of a hackathon, and with most participants being skilled, it was enjoyable to see high-quality results.

I still can’t forget the first hackathon I attended. Experiencing collaboration for the first time was a fresh shock for someone like me who had only participated in information security competitions. The competition itself felt not like solving problems but creating value and developing products that help someone.