Winning my first hackathon was a bittersweet memory. It had been a year since I first started attending hackathons, having participated in five prior.

I remember being ecstatic that I had finally won something. My competitive nature often made me leave hackathons feeling unaccomplished and empty from not winning, but this time, I was able to go on without this heartbreak.

However, after leaving the venue, I felt a different kind of unexpected disappointment. Even though our team had won, I had no part in any of the code that brought the project alive. I ended up working on things that never made it to the final project and felt like I was just lucky to have amazing and competent friends who carried me through. My feelings of incompetence and inadequacy were something I brushed off, since I knew I would have many more chances to improve and grow.

Nonetheless, this feeling would, once again, come back to haunt me. About six months later, I had once again won at a hackathon, unexpectedly.

I ended up repeating the same mistake. I worked on our project but ended up being blinded by perfectionism and scale, and my contributions never ended up being used, nor be of any use. I was once again carried by my competent team members, and I felt really conflicted. This time, I received a much larger prize than I had ever received from any hackathons before, but this was unable to numb me from reality.

Afterwards, I continued to participate in hackathons, but with a different lens this time. I was bummed when I didn’t win anything, but I was still satisfied each time I completed a project and was able to present to the judges. I won here and there, but winning became more of a highlight rather than a focus—my confidence and self-worth were boosted by, but not reliant on winning.

Hackathons have been a big part of my life and have given me the confidence to continue on my path as a software engineer, due in part to the projects I completed and the feelings of success. Months later, I was able to land an internship as a software engineer over the summer; at this point in my life, I finally made it into my dream university program.

When you are participating in a hackathon, make sure you find what is most important to you and learn to define your own success. Hackathons aren’t just a competition. They are more of an event that, honestly, provides something valuable to everyone. This could be learning a new skill, networking with companies, or even just having fun.

Personally, I learned to be more lax and have fun taking breaks in between, and I found these moments to be just as valuable as the actual competition: things like late-night cup stacking, eating ramen noodles, and just fooling around in general.

Whatever it is, I hope that you can come out of JAMHacks V, or any other hackathons you attend for that matter, feeling accomplished even if you don’t win a prize.

The first hackathon I ever participated in was StarterHacks 2020, an in-person hackathon that ran in January 2020 before this whole pandemic thing started. At the time, I was honestly pretty intimidated by the idea of staying overnight at the University of Waterloo for 24 hours of straight, doing nothing but code.

If JAMHacks V is going to be your first hackathon, I’m sure you might feel the same way. However, don’t worry! Hackathons aren’t only about just pure coding and learning; they’re about having fun too. Personally, I was able to overcome my fears and have a great time, and I’m sure you will too at JAMHacks!

To potentially alleviate some of your worries about going to hackathons, I’ll share some of my stories from StarterHacks 2020.

The Green Glass Door

I actually attended StarterHacks with several members of the JAMHacks V organizing team—namely Trevor, Yina, Michelle, and Cristian, as well as some other friends.

At one point during the hackathon, we all decided to take a break and began chatting in a hallway. We played a lot of riddle/wordplay games (courtesy of Michelle) and, as we kept talking, some mentors and volunteers passing by joined us.

One of the games we played was called The Green Glass Door. The rules were simple: any word with a double letter can pass through the door, and any word without a double letter cannot. It’s a pretty simple riddle and most of us got it pretty quickly, but this one mentor that came to sit with us just could not understand. Heck, we must’ve spent at least an hour giving him increasingly more obvious hints, but he just sat there confused. It was definitely a funny experience and alleviated a lot of my hackathon fears, such as asking for help from mentors.

The Great Dance Battles of StarterHacks 2020

Often, hackers end up with a lot of pent-up energy from sitting around all day at a hackathon. When I attended my first hackathon, we ended up spending this excess energy by dancing in the hallways!

It was truly an experience—our team would be walking around the campus for a break and just start cruising down the corridors jaywalking or c-walking. We even formed a brand-new, groundbreaking K-pop group and rehearsed a couple group choreographies together! Trevor and I were also both interested in breakdancing, so we showed off our poorly-done freezes and moves to each other while laughing our heads off.

Late Night Poker

Late into the night, one of the volunteers who we met earlier actually joined us to just chill, because he didn’t really have any more volunteer duties to worry about at that point. We started playing poker around midnight—not for money or anything, though; don’t worry, we weren’t gambling.

I eventually went to sleep because I was too tired to continue, but by the time I woke up, some of my friends were STILL playing. I initially thought that I had just taken a 20 minute nap, but nope; they were just playing all night.

In the end, what I really want you to take away from this blog post is that hackathons are full of opportunities to have fun, not just non-stop coding for tens of hours.

At this point, the pandemic has changed everything, and JAMHacks is no exception. Things won’t be exactly the same this year, and this is something that we, as organizers, fully understand. This is why our team has been working relentlessly to bring you a fun schedule that is jam-packed with fun activities, so that you can make the most out of the event even if it’s online this year.

Happy hacking, and we’ll see you this weekend!

Attending multiple hackathons can be confusing, especially if they all have different judging criteria. It’s difficult to know what each hackathon is looking for in a winning project. However, one thing I’ve learned from attending numerous hackathons is that your project needs to stand out. An attention-grabbing hack can be the difference between a decent project and one that actually wins prizes.

It’s important to note that JAMHacks is a beginner-friendly hackathon, and all types of high school hackers are welcome. For that reason, these tips will focus more on the logistics of the project, rather than the code itself. Here are the top 3 things you can do to make your hack stand out:

Polish it up

While most hackathons typically look for technicality as one of their judging criteria, and a technically impressive command-line project may be interesting, it may not stand out to our judges. One thing, however, that is guaranteed to get your hack noticed is a level of polish.

One quick way this can be done is by creating a nice GUI for your program. Having a user interface greatly increases the appeal of your project because it seems more marketable. Even a simple GUI with a couple of colours makes your project far more appealing!

Another thing I like to do to increase the marketability of my projects is to make it user-friendly. By fixing bugs and making my hack available to the judges to try, you help your project stand out and it will appear much more polished. If you have a web-based project, try hosting it on a server; if your hack is made for desktop, try packaging it into an executable. Allowing the judges to test your project themselves is important because it stays true to a traditional hackathon.

An outstanding pitch makes an outstanding project

JAMHacks V is a virtual hackathon, so for the asynchronous judging portion, each team will have the opportunity to create a 3-minute video pitch of their hack which the judges will view.

This video is incredibly important in showcasing your project. Make sure to work on your pitch well before hacking ends, because time is limited and you will need extra time to edit and export your video.

One of my most memorable hackathon experiences was when my team and I put a lot of effort into making our pitch funny and attention-grabbing. The judges really enjoyed our humorous video, and we took home a finalists’ prize! The pitch is a big part of JAMHacks, so be sure to give it plenty of time and effort. You can follow the tips outlined in this blog post to make your pitch even better.

Avoid tech buzzwords

While “machine learning” and “blockchain” may sound impressive at first, it’s not required to implement these emerging technologies into your project in order to stand a chance at winning. In fact, including these technologies without proper justification may actually hurt your project in the long run.

I’ve seen countless examples of this at other hackathons, where teams built a blockchain to include in their project, without actually needing one. They did it simply to have the “decentralized” buzzword in their title. Judges can see through gimmicks like this, so don’t add these things to your project if they aren’t required, and definitely do not include those words in your pitch if they aren’t present in your project.

Also, don’t put too much pressure on yourself if your hack ends up not meeting your expectations. Some of my best projects were simple and didn’t involve too many features or technical achievements. Stay true to your hack, and show off what makes it unique!

Hackathons can definitely be a stressful experience for some, but by knowing how to make your project stand out from the crowd, you will have a much easier time with future hacks. Polishing up your project, focusing on the pitch, and avoiding buzzwords are three very simple things you can do to grab our judges’ attention.

Lastly, make sure to have fun during the hackathon by participating in some of our recreational activities. The hack itself is not as important as your experience and how you grow from it. Enjoy yourselves, and happy hacking!

A great presentation gives smart ideas an advantage.

This quote by Nancy Duarte illustrates how important it is to market your product in the most optimal way possible.

At JAMHacks, there is no doubt that we are going to see some stellar projects, with hackers using a variety of technologies, languages, and frameworks to formulate technical masterpieces. These projects may have the potential to solve problems that we struggle with on a daily basis, or even add convenience that we did not even know we needed.

However, no matter how spectacular and useful your work is, unless you can showcase that to our judges, your chances of winning our coveted prizes are going to be slim. This is where the pitch comes into play.

All About the Hackathon Pitch

The pitch is, arguably, the most important part of your overall project. Think about it: all the hours of work you have spent brainstorming, planning, and coding away at accomplishing this one goal, and now you are being asked to summarize that in the span of 3 minutes or less. Doesn’t it seem, a bit insulting? You might be demanding, “How dare you expect me to explain my weekend’s work in 180 seconds for your goldfish attention span?”

However, due to time constraints and everyday life in general, this is just how it has to be, and you just have to figure out a way to highlight all the important details of your project within this allotted time. Fortunately, I have a template that should work with most kinds, if not every kind of project; this structure, when executed properly, can win you a prize at JAMHacks V!

The Hook

At the start of your pitch, you have to hook your audience in and lead into what type of problem your project aims to solve.

For example, back in May of 2020, my group and I participated in a virtual hackathon and created a web app that would help hospitals manage their PPE supply for the pandemic. Since I wanted to highlight the problem of COVID-19 in my hook, I stated:

Currently, we are seeing COVID-19 do immense damage to the health of our country. As it was just reported on April 12, 2020, the American death toll has exceeded 20,200, surpassing Italy as the country with the most deaths caused by COVID, and it is only projected to get worse. However, not only is coronavirus destroying the livelihood of our people, but it is also putting a heavy strain on our available resources.

This three-sentence hook introduces the problem and pinpoints the exact area that our solution aims to address. I also added articles as a form of visual aid for my presentation. I also mentioned how part of the problem lies within the government, as their lackluster attempts to handle PPE equipment resulted in shortages and misuse. This leads into the next part of the presentation.

Introducing the Solution

After your hook, a criteria or outline of what your solution aims to address would be helpful for the audience to understand what specific issues need to be targeted.

So far, all I have done is explain that COVID-19 has become a rampant problem, and that the government is failing to handle medical equipment distribution objectively. Now, I must explain what a potential solution should be able to do, and so I continued:

All of this subjectivity has only caused nuisances for the American healthcare system, and points to the importance of an objective, trusted system where the government can easily monitor medical demands and direct supply chain efforts to fit said demands.

These statements, alongside the slide displayed below, clarify for the viewers of the presentation what exactly a system should be able to accomplish in order to solve the current issues in play.

Explaining Your Project In-Depth

Next, you should discuss your project’s title and what it does. However, only keep the most important details: don’t talk about the frameworks you used, or the steps a user has to take to actually use the website… At least not yet. In this section, you should only talk about what your application fundamentally allows a user to accomplish, and how it meets the criterion you have set for yourself.

To continue with my example, I described our application like this:

MEDTRAK is a blockchain-based web application that tracks hospital supplies as they are transported throughout the nation. Different hospitals are members of this blockchain, and they provide information regarding their stock of medical supply, as well as how much supplies they need to receive to effectively care for their patients. This information is then stored on the blockchain, and various suppliers —government bodies or charitable organizations — can see this information and perform transactions based on observing certain shortages or large demands.

This small paragraph fully explains the basic gist of our application, and everything that has been said so far only takes approximately a minute and a half. The final part should take up the rest of the time.

The Demo

Finally, you should perform an application demo. If you are able to successfully showcase your project’s functionality and relate it back to the criteria that you set up for yourself, you can seal the deal on winning a prize.

The demo is super important, so make sure to not waste any time with filler information. Just talk about the what’s, why’s, and how’s of the different features of your project, as well as its success in meeting your criteria. The demo of our website wasn’t scripted, but this is the exact approach we took.

Finish it off with a conclusion that reiterates the need for your project, and would you look at that—you have successfully created a 3-minute pitch!

Never overlook the pitch portion of your project. It is a vital and necessary part of the work you accomplish at JAMHacks, and it can make or break your submission. By following this template I outlined here, my team was fortunate enough to win first place at the aforementioned virtual hackathon, and I have continued to use it to excel at other hackathons. I hope that this post can help you do the same!

Typically, projects that use the interwebz are composed of a frontend and a backend. The frontend is what the user sees, while the backend is what wrangles data and serves it up to the frontend. IDEALLY, a clean, well-designed frontend works with an efficient, well-designed backend to form one cohesive unit. USUALLY (from personal experience), hackathon projects end up becoming a Godzilla frontend and an eldritch horror of a backend held together by a couple threads.

The trigger is time-pressure and the culprit is a lack of planning—something I’m often VERY VERY guilty of. One of my most vivid memories was during “cram hour” (the hour before the project deadline): the backend needed to serve image files to the frontend. The problem was, the two ends used two completely different methods of communication. Forty minutes were left on the clock and… chaos ensued. Luckily, we managed to stitch together a (very) sketchy fix just in the nick of time.

Usually, when working on your own (on, say, a side-project), you have a pretty good idea of how the frontend functions, how the backend does stuff, and how and when the two ends communicate. However, given the need to make a sophisticated project under the tight time constraints of a hackathon, teams usually like to split into “frontenders’’ and “backenders”.

But in this scheme, where you only work on one segment of the project, things can easily go south if there’s no unified plan of how the project’s going to work. The reason why things went (deep) south in my personal anecdote was because we didn’t bother to plan.

So far, I’ve been giving you an earful about why we need to plan, but let me talk about how to plan. Usually, I like to draw out some sort of flowchart on a chalkboard/whiteboard. Typically, it depicts the flow of information through the backend, to the frontend, and then to the user. Off to the side, we have a to-do list that, well, lists any TO-DOs we have (to do). I think this is a pretty good framework for planning and has worked well for almost all eight of the hackathons I’ve been to.

Just to make it clear, though, this method is what has been working for me. People are different and I’m not some sort of know-all hackathon guru (actually, I’m pretty inexperienced in comparison to some people I know). Anyhow, I encourage you to experiment with different ways of doing things until you find something that works.

Oh and, one final note: never forget to plan, but don’t plan too much either. What’s the point of planning if there’s no time to actually enact the plan, right? It might sound difficult to strike a balance, but trust me, it gets easier and easier over time.

Anyways, that’s all I really had to say. Good luck out there and keep thriving at hackathons!

With the coming of age in the new era of technology, everybody wants to experience the most convenient, efficient and, in general, best technology our world has to offer. Our society has become extremely lazy and wants everything online to be served on a platter right in front of them. As a result of our current generation’s short attention span, even the slightest inconvenience can result in the risk of a user exiting the tab.

Consider this: have you ever found yourself browsing through a website, either struggling to navigate through its pages or just wondering to yourself, “What on earth am I looking at?” Well, this is likely due to bad UI design.

What Is UI Design?

User interface design is the process of planning the graphical interface on which users interact with your application, website, etc… It includes planning the basic design elements that are required for someone to be able to properly navigate and interact with your site. The UI is essentially the connection between the user and the application, and it must be able to facilitate the passing of information in a two-way channel between the user and the application.

Common elements of UI design include the input controls, data display components, layout, and navigation. This Medium article is an example of a UI: it has a big navigation bar at the top with links to the rest of the site, a side panel for interacting with the author of the blog post, and a big column layout of the actual content of the blog in the middle. When you resize the browser, the contents of the site also adjust accordingly based on how much available space there is. When the blog is opened on a mobile device, we can also see major layout and functionality changes, with a hamburger-style navigation bar and app store installation options.

Why Is UI Design so Important?

Good UI Design is important because it facilitates clear communication to the target audience. It allows for a very transparent display of information, making the products that are being sold, as well as the message that is being conveyed, very clear and understandable. A good UI will help draw in visitor attention and maintain visitor retention rates by prioritizing the user through user-centric design.

UI design not only accounts for the “aesthetics” of a site, but also its efficiency and accessibility. This means that a site should be optimized for various different viewports and web browsers, such that all mediums should still result in a near identical user experience. Balance is key to a good UI design—emphasis must be placed on maximizing functionality, making clear what the intention of the site is, and not overloading the user with information.

Good UI Design Conventions

When a user visits a site, they already have an expectation for how the interface should work. Thus, when designing a UI, it is important to make sure that the UI is predictable, concise, and consistent. Here are a few general guidelines you can follow:

1. Keep it plain and simple — use simple language and remove any unnecessary elements
2. Consistency is key — use consistent elements within your application, as the more predictable a UI is, the easier it will be for a user to navigate through it
3. Use typography with a purpose — utilize different fonts, sizes, and colours to carefully control the readability and flow of your site
4. Use intuitive navigation — through the provision of visual cues and the usage of predictable modern navigation conventions, the way through which users should navigate the site should be made apparent and intuitive

Feel free to check out this article for more information regarding good UI design guidelines.

Conclusion

In this blog, we’ve discussed what UI design is, why UI design is important, and a few brief guidelines on how we can implement good UI design practices. Be sure to use this information wisely when building your UIs at JAMHacks V this year!

Written by Qianxu Guo, JAMHacks V Organizer

A lot of people have been there: staring at a blank computer screen as everyone else around hunches over their computer screens, typing a mile a minute. Just then, you overhear the person beside you say that they started programming in sixth grade and have won three hackathons… It’s truly intimidating. Terrifying.

But your first hackathon doesn’t have to — and shouldn’t — make you feel that way. Today, I’m here to tell you that the hackathon experience is not as stressful, sleepless, and competitive as people often imagine.

Myth: You have to be an expert at coding to even consider attending a hackathon.

Truth: A hackathon is not a competition for who can do the most advanced coding! Treat it as a learning experience, and you’ll have a blast.

This is probably the most common misconception about hackathons. Don’t shy away from participating in a hackathon just because you’re not a super experienced programmer — there are plenty of workshops at hackathons like JAMHacks V that can help kickstart your project, whether it’s an app, a website, or a hardware build. Even if you’ve never coded before, don’t worry! After attending one of our beginner workshops, such as Intro to HTML/CSS, you’ll be making your first website in no time.

Our mentors will also be more than happy to guide you through any difficulties and answer any questions along the way, no matter how “dumb” these questions may seem to you. If you’re still hesitant, just remember: some of the most experienced programmers choose to tackle an area they’re unfamiliar with during hackathons, so you are really not that different. Ultimately, learning new things and having fun is way more important than winning first place!

Myth: You will do nothing but sit in front of your computer for a whole weekend. Sleep? That’s out of the question.

Truth: Almost all hackathons have plenty of games and fun activities incorporated into their schedule to prevent burnout. And you can absolutely sleep!

If you come out of JAMHacks V feeling stressed, exhausted, and burned out, then we, as hackathon organizers, have failed at doing our job. If you are in need of a “brain break”, many COVID-friendly activities are waiting for you. Play on our very own Minecraft server and compete with fellow hackers in minigames and build tournaments! Or, test how much of a random knowledge know-it-all you are by playing in our trivia session. How about an origami workshop for a bit of a finger workout? I’m sure there’s something for everyone to enjoy.

Maybe you’re just a bit too tired for these activities, though. Powering through an entire hackathon without sleep may seem like a great achievement, but you’d be surprised to find out how much more productive you can be after a few hours of rest. Especially now, you can take advantage of the virtual nature of hackathons and sleep in the comfort of your own bedroom!

Myth: Your project must be perfect before submitting it for judging.

Truth: You’re only expected to submit a prototype at the end of a hackathon — a proof of concept even!

It takes tech startups months, or even years, to develop their product or software. So why should you be expected to do the same in one weekend? The answer is, you shouldn’t be! Many first-time hackers are hesitant to submit a half-working project, but I’m going to let you in on an “insider” secret: many hackathon projects — even some winning ones — only look complete and bug-free for judging.

Myth: You have no chance of winning a prize as a first-time hacker.

Truth: Hackathons often place more emphasis on ideation than the advancedness of the code, leveling the playing field for less experienced hackers.

JAMHacks, as a beginner-focused hackathon, has a dedicated prize stream for first-time hackers. Moreover, ⅘ of JAMHacks V’s judging criteria is based on the creativity of the idea, the usefulness of the final product, and the quality of the presentation; only the remaining ⅕ measures the project’s technical difficulty. So, even if your team receives a low score for technical difficulty, your overall score can still be high enough to qualify you for first, second, or third place overall.

Myth: Only coders attend hackathons.

Truth: Robotics, hardware, business, and design skills are all assets to a team.

We highly recommend that you give JAMHacks a try even if your interests fall outside of computer science! Not only are you welcomed to build a project that involves something other than software, you can also be the design and/or pitching expert in the team if you feel that your teammates are more skilled at programming. After all, diversity is what makes us stronger!

Myth: A hackathon project ends after pitching.

Truth: Many people continue to develop their hackathon projects into great startups.

Hackathons have, historically, given birth to million-dollar companies such as GroupMe! Whether you end up winning anything with your JAMHacks project or not, we encourage you to take the idea forward and turn it into a side project if it’s something you and your team are truly passionate about. Also, feel free to contact the mentors who helped you during the hackathon — many of them are more than happy to provide further assistance on your journey!

I hope this article has cleared up some of your fears about attending a hackathon. The first step is always the hardest one, but I promise you won’t regret it! Even if computer science doesn’t end up being your cup of tea, the hackathon community you’ll get to know is still absolutely amazing. If you have any more questions or concerns, just shoot us an email at hello@jamhacks.ca and we’ll answer them to the best of our ability!