How did we bag the First Runner Up Price in Apex Ideathon?

Apex Ideathon 2023 was a 3-day Inter-college competition organized by the Apex Information Technology Club at Apex College on 10, 11, and 12 February 2023 where we had to create a prototype of the idea sticking with the theme. Luckily, we also secured 2nd position in the event which paid off our hard work and teamwork during the 3 days at the event. So in this blog, I will be sharing my experience as well as learnings from the hackathon which will surely motivate you to take part in any upcoming Hackathons!
P.S. This is ideathon though I will be telling Hackathon in this post

REMEMBER: Participation is better than winning. Because if you don’t participate then there is no chance of winning. Also, participating will make you a better winner for next time.

How did I get to know about the hackathon?

Got to know from one of my mentor Mukesh Kumar Chaudhary aka willsir in the NOSK-Nepal Open Source Klub Telegram Community discussion. He insisted me to be part of it even though our internal examinations were ongoing. So after taking permission from our college administration we decided to be part of the Hackathon. He also shared me his experiences of participating in the Renegade Hackathon which inspired and motivated me to not miss ideathon. Thus, I will also recommend you to be part of any of your favorite community where you value and love the discussions there, if you haven’t found one then feel free to join NOSK Community 😉

How did I get the team?

I reached out to my fellow NOSKians first then after finding a few members from there, then I started to reach out to the talented and versatile friends of my class. And finally, in the end, Rikesh Silwal, Prince Kushwaha, Bishal Poudel, and Me were at the team
We were not perfect but we all decided to give it a try and do our best, and we did the best 😉

How did we choose the idea?

At first, we went through brainstorming every possible idea in all the themes by comparing them with our skillsets. For Example in the Retail Transformation theme, the idea we got was to make Grocery Store AR with Maps but we didn’t have any AR + Mobile App Experience in the team so we dropped the idea. And finally, we decided to go with the Productivity Tool theme where we aim to build a tool to increase the productivity of a person by decreasing distractions and increasing focus which I will explain in detail in a bit.

Experience of Apex Hackathon

We had amazing fun and memories in the 3 days hackathon which was a unique experience for every one of us. We were accompanied by Food, Music, Snacks, Gaming, and Coffee in all 3-day events. Especially, everyone on the Organizing Committee was so humble, obedient, and dedicated to making the event the best which I felt from the first day till the end of the event. KUDOS to all the Organizing Committee for making the event a grand success. Okay! so enough of the appreciation, let’s get back to the topic.

Personally, I participated in the hackathon to give my best and check my technical skills as well as brush up on my non-technical skills like leadership, communication, and collaboration. Thus, I gave my best from late-night sleep to no sleep. And yeah, in total 2 nights at the event, I just slept for 4 hours on the first night however during 2nd night we just worked our asses off to make the prototype work as well to make the best presentation possible. Some of the memorable times of the hackathons are:

1. Playing Basketball and Table Tennis with Rikesh at MidNight

2. Prince and I stayed till 4 AM on the first day in the morning wandering here and there, disturbing other buddies while they were in deep sleep and doing photoshoots.

3. Bikalpa Dhakal, One of our mentors for the hackathon included us in his vlog which we enjoyed a lot. You can watch his vlog here on Youtube.

4. Played FIFA 22 on the controller and also after a very long time got a chance to play Carrom Board too, on which I am pretty bad at

5. Enjoyed an evening Musical Performance with amazing dancers and singers

6. I am already missing our midnight snacks, Nimbhu Pani drinks, and coffee every few hours.

7. Lastly, had tons of memories as I met amazing Apexians with broad hearts and kind souls.

There are many other memories that will be with me forever that are unexplainable in words.

What did we do at the event?

We made a project named “DoMoreNow” in which Pomodoro Timer is attached to a ToDo List where If you are in Focus mode then your distractive websites like youtube, Facebook, etc are blocked so that you can focus on your task. Also, we have built a dashboard where a user can track their Productivity logs in accordance with the behavior shown by them while using our web app. We made frontend in React, tailwind, and backend in Django and also used Rest API.

Takeaways from the Hackathon

1. Proper planning and preparation is a must with multiple increments and hit & trials

2. Proper Communication among team members boosts everyone’s confidence and motivation

3. During Hackathon Project Demonstration is also a crucial part thus pitching and slides preparation need to be done with equal effort as making MVP

4. Network with other new people

5. The results after working under rush and pressure give immense joy and satisfaction

6. Don’t forget to have fun and make every moment memorable

7. Don’t compare yourself with anybody else but rather learn from everyone

8. While working in a group as a team sometimes you need to compromise on things

9. Imperfect is a perfect

10. Keep your ego in the trash can and be humble/kind

Wish you all the luck in your next hackathon 😉

Hope you got to learn something from my experience!
Do let me know in the comments 🙂
See you until next time!