Curious Scripts Hackathon

Curious Scripts Phase 1

Date held: 28 Sept 2024

Recently, I had the privilege of serving as both a mentor and judge at the Curious Scripts Hackathon at Kalpataru Institute of Technology . This event marked a unique opportunity for me to engage with young, enthusiastic minds, and guide them through the exciting process of building and presenting their ideas. The hackathon was a beginner-level event, which posed its own set of challenges and learning moments, both for the students and for me as a mentor.

A Look at the Hackathon Structure

The hackathon consisted of 8 problem statements, each designed to encourage the students to create solutions that revolved mostly around basic web development. As one would expect from a beginner-level competition, most students tackled the problem statements with foundational tools and techniques, primarily focusing on building basic functionalities websites. While the projects were modest in scope, the passion and determination shown by the participants were truly commendable.

Given the tier-3 nature of the college, this hackathon served as an important stepping stone for students who are just beginning to explore the world of technology and software development. It was clear that, for many of them, this was their first experience working on a real-world problem under time constraints, collaborating with peers, and presenting their work to judges.

Mentoring: Guiding the First Steps

As a mentor, my role was to help these budding developers understand the problem statements better, guide them through coding challenges, and offer feedback to improve their approach. One of the recurring issues I noticed was the tendency to focus heavily on front-end development, with limited understanding of back-end processes or more complex problem-solving techniques. This is, of course, completely natural for beginners.

What stood out, however, was the willingness of the students to learn. Whether it was debugging an error, understanding the concept of APIs, or figuring out how to make their websites more responsive, their eagerness to ask questions and absorb knowledge was truly refreshing.

Judging: The Projects and Feedback

As a judge, it was rewarding to see the efforts put in by all the teams. The projects, while basic, demonstrated that the students had grasped the fundamentals of web development. However, the primary focus of my feedback was to highlight areas of improvement, particularly in problem-solving depth, design-thinking, and technical implementation.

I made it a point to encourage the teams to think beyond just building a static website and to explore more dynamic features, back-end integration, and advanced tools for their future projects. While the results were basic in phase 1, the foundation is there for these students to grow.

Moving Forward: Plans for Phase 2

While the first phase of the Curious Scripts Hackathon was a valuable learning experience for the students, it’s clear that Phase 2 needs to take things to the next level. My goal for the next phase is to encourage more innovative and technically challenging problem statements, so that students can push their limits and dive deeper into the world of software development.

To ensure that the students are better prepared for the next round, we plan to organize **workshops and training sessions** on more advanced topics such as backend development, database management, and integrating APIs. By doing this, we hope to see more dynamic and robust projects in the next hackathon, as the students gain confidence in handling more complex tasks.

Conclusion

Overall, my experience at the Curious Scripts Hackathon was incredibly fulfilling. Being able to mentor and judge these eager students was both inspiring and motivating. While the projects were at a beginner level, the potential for growth is immense. With more guidance and structured learning, I am confident that the students of Kalpataru Institute of Technology will rise to the challenge and produce even better work in future hackathons. I look forward to seeing what Phase 2 brings!