Hackathon Fest Experience At Galgotias University (Dextrix 4.0)

My friends and I recently participated in a hackathon – Dextrix 4.0. It was a 30-hour hackathon which was hosted by TechnoJam, the technical club of Galgotias University. The event took place on the 13th and 14th of April 2024 at Galgotias University. It was a huge event as 150+ teams from different colleges participated. Since It was my first hackathon, I would like to share my experiences. We were a team of five students, all from the same class. Our domain was health and wellness. We were developing a platform that would help mankind make a transition from allopathy medicines to ayurvedic remedies. I was handling the frontend part including the User Interface and designing of the website. We have divided the tasks among all of us to work efficiently. We started working 5 days before the hackathon, to avoid any last-minute hassles. We used to start our day with an online meeting discussing the tasks for that day and another meeting at the end of the day to see each other’s progress.

The Event began on 13th April at 9:30 a.m. Each team was allocated desks, ethernet cables, and power supplies. The opening ceremony took place at the auditorium with candle lighting and an inspiring session by the vice chancellor sir. At about 11 we began with our project. After an hour we were given food coupons and we headed to have lunch. At about 4’o clock we had our first mentor session, in which two mentors came to us, analyzed our project, and gave us valuable feedback. At about 7:30 we had our first judging round. This was an idea pitching round in which we had to explain our idea and outline a roadmap that how we are going to implement it. All the team members gave their best and our hard work yielded rewarding results. We were among the top four teams from a total of 150+ teams. Overall only 20 teams were qualified in this round. We had our dinner and then we worked all night on our project, taking it to the final stage.

We began our day with breakfast at about 8:00 a.m. No doubt, all of us were sleep-deprived but we all were excited for the second round. at about 11:00 a.m. we had our second mentor session. Mentors guided us with our doubts and also suggested some improvements to our project. After lunch, we had our final judging round. We all were prepared well. Judges came to us and began their evaluation. It was around 6-7 minutes round only. After two hours we all were called in the auditorium for the results. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the top three list. We were given 4th rank. But for me, securing a 4th position among 150+ teams and 700+ students was a huge thing. It is truly an unforgettable experience for me.

This was all about my first Hackathon experience. I believe Hackathons are very important for every computer science student because they provide students with a platform to showcase their skills and collaborative work with team members.