Well, let me just say that today is something I can also check off my bucket list. Today was the first day of the Hackathon! I was concerned on how this day would turn out, but I can say it was better than I expected. I have never been or participated in a Hackathon before, even though UMass Lowell hosts one every year. When going into the Hackathon, they provided free breakfast and lunch. I thought this was very generous of them and made me able to get through the day knowing I would be getting free food. At the beginning, we were separated into groups where we would all have to come up with an idea that would help people understand and try to react faster to their friends if they are starting to show signs of having depression. I thought this was an interesting and complicated project, but I was up for the challenge. My group was group #2 (Team Blue) and we were a group of 8 who had to solve this problem and come up with a solution. After gathering into teams, each member of the team was set off to a room to learn a little bit about depression, things that could either better understand the symptoms of having depression, or things that could help create a device or application that could help the user understand potential symptoms. Once we finished, all of the teams came together again and started to share the information that they have learned. This was a great way to help better understand the goal that we needed to reach with the product we would be creating. After that, we all started to bring in ideas on a product that would work the best. Brainstorming started to occur and ideas were thrown out one by one.

By the end of the first day, we had a working idea and would be able to work on it at home. Overall, I believe that today was a very successful day and that my expectations for this event were exceeded. I’m excited for what tomorrow will bring us as we will be working more on our final product and presenting them to the rest of the groups. This whole event is a great learning experience and I’m really excited that I am able to be apart of it. After experiencing what a Hackathon is really about, it has made me consider wanting to participate in another Hackathon back in the states. I would say that today’s experience has allowed me to gain some insight on how to work with a large group and work together on a tight schedule to meet a critical deadline. I will be able to take all of the skills I have learned just on day one and be able to apply them to my future work and work environment. I would give today a 10/10 since I was able to gain important life and work skills. That would make the trip a total of 72/70 so far. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow will hold! I’m excited to see what the other groups at the Hackathon will be presenting.

The table my group worked at today

The wall of post-it notes my group wrote out from the information we learned from our split lessons at the beginning of the Hackathon.