Events, Involvement, and More
From October 18-19th, I had the privilege of being involved at HackTX 25, UT's annual hackathon. For those unfamiliar, hackathons are a gathering place for students well-versed in emerging technology and solutions to come up with creative solutions to modern problems. The entire formation of the idea, development of the software, and live demo/presentations need to be done within a 24 hour time window, making efficiency and execution paramount. Despite being a mechanical engineering major, I love my time at these events as it really challenges myself to learn new things very quickly. At HackTX, I was the solo developer behind the web application ComicQuery, which uses astronomic plate-solving algorithms to inform users on what they are seeing in any given celestial photo, along with an LLM to give them a human-readable rundown and answer questions. I presented this app live to a panel of judges, who ranged from CEOs/founders of startups to SWEs at FAANG companies. Stayed up for 41 hours in the end, but made something I am proud of. You can learn more at my Github!
HackRice took place from September 19th to the 21st, making it way longer than the time alloted in HackTX. It was also my first ever hackathon, which was definitely an experience, having it be that drawn out for my first time. I was up for 42 hours before I had to crash at a friend's dorm at UH, but memories were made. This is where I grew my foundation for the work ethic needed behind these events, which I brought with me going into HackTX. I learned HTML/CSS to make a very simple website that addresses growing social disconnection in the world of the internet. It allowed users to attribute feelings through text posts at different geographical locations around the world, and connect with other users anonymously. It was the perfect foundation for the future web development I would do at UT and also here, on this very site you are browsing! You can check out the project yourself, also on my Github.