Running a Hackathon at the International Science and Engineering Fair

The International Science and Engineer Fair is one of the most famous science fairs in the world, where over 1500+ students come together to showcase their research and innovative skills and compete for over $6,000,000 in prizes. XdHacks Mini was invited to organize a mini-hackathon for this event, in-person, in Atlanta, Georgia. This is my experience.

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It all first started when Kaden, our President got an email from the Society for Science about hosting a hackathon at ISEF. How they got to us? - by typing in the worlds Mini-Hackathon and Climate to Google. Luckily for us, our website is hosted on mini.xdhacks, which fits the “mini” bill, and the event that I directed, Climate Code 2021, was also there. Thus, we began negotiating on running an event at this upcoming fair.

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After months of dedicated work and communicating with one another on how the event would run and operate, we headed down to Atlanta for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Since the ISEF fair rotates every year, we were lucky enough to be able to head to Atlanta, a city that I had never visited before.

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As I had just finished my exams, the flight down was nice and Delta really showed why it was rated so highly. The Atlanta airport also showed me why it was the busiest airport in North America with an internal train between something like 7 terminals!

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Since we arrived on day 3 of the event, the activities were already underway and events progressing smoothly. I really wanted to make the most of my experience, so I made sure to tune out everything that I wouldn’t ever be able to experience elsewhere. I went to all the big attractions, checked out all the student exhibits, and interacted with most, if not all the students. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the participants thought I was a participant as well - I was only 17 and most of the other participants were also my age. This made it interesting when we first checked in, as I had to explain that I was actually an organizer of the event!

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One of my most favourite parts about Georgia Tech was the Maker Labs that they had. They had literally all sorts of labs just for people to experiment and build projects. They had a 3D printing lab, sandpaper lab, ceramics, design, machinery, and so much more. I’m not sure whether this is a reflection of American tuition or a reflection of why the school is called “Georgia Tech”. Either way, I think their investment into this sort of technology is really great and is something that schools in Canada should look at.

7. This was another MakerLab on the Georgia Tech campus

As we began to leave Georgia Tech, our professor guide, introduced us to the President of Georgia Tech. He was just scrolling through campus and talking to students. This was quite amazing and cool to see how engaging their President was.

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Another exhibit that I walked out to was the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. Unfortunately, they had closed all tours and it was desolate. I found this quite sad considering what this American media icon has done in the history of the world. It would have been good to learn about the history and reflect on CNN’s past.

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I was able to take a photo with the ISEF sign as I was departing the conference hall on day 2.

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We were able to take a selfie as we waited to enter the Atlanta Aquarium, I believe one of if not the biggest aquarium in North America.

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We also learned about Atlanta’s history hosting the 1996 Summer Olympics. The park right outside the convention centre was still named Olympic Park.

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We went out to the Aquarium and took a group photo of the team. We had Nikhil, me, Kaden, Lucy, and Peter on this trip. We were all in university in first and second year.

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As we prepared for the event, we took in the view from the top of the stage. They had essentially booked the entire 3rd floor for the event and had prepared the event hall for us in advance.

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Here were myself, Peter, and Lucy in the exhibition hall. We learned about high school student’s projects and their accomplishments.

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Here was my tag as I entered the hall, we had to scan the QR code to enter. They also had to check our bags and laptops to make sure that we weren’t stealing anything. It was quite the security systsem.

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This was the view as I left Toronto. It was quite the ride across Lake Ontario and my first time into Georgia.

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Georgia World Congress Centre would be the location of the event.

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Ponce City Market was a former Sears store converted into a market with food, drinks, ice-cream and other cool activities. I think this was a great example of what we can do in the future for old buildings.

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I had the opportunity to visit Martin Luther King Junior’s museum and National Historical Site in Atlanta. I thought it was a really cool place and I learned a lot about the history and significance of Martin Luther King.

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At Georgia Tech, this was the type of “Invention Studio” or Maker Lab that I found set the school a part from U of T.

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We had the opportunity to visit the Atlanta Botanical Garden, which reminded me of Vancouver’s garden, but I found this one to be much nicer. There were many more varieties of plants and also really great opportunities for us to learn about the plants and the native species. The above picture was one of the cooler flowers we saw.

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As part of our tour, we got to check out the top of the Georgia Tech tower. Itw as on the 20th ish floor of a new innovation building that I though was really cool.

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As Nikhil and I ended our trip, we made our way to the Atlanta United game and watched them take on DC United in Mercedes Benz Stadium. I thought this was a really cool experience and definitely worthwhile of coming again. The oval overhead screen was really special.

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The 4 of us also made our way to a puzzle game where we had to try to use clues in a room to solve a mystery. I found it quite fun as it was my first time doing it. We managed to solve the room and get the loot.

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Back at the Martin Luther King Memorial, I took a picture of his fountain. I really learned a lot about the legacy and impact that he laid for America.

Reflecting on this experience, there were things that I wish we did and other things that I’m super proud that we accomplished.

For the things that I think we could’ve improved on were:

1. The experience for participants. I wasn’t entirely sure about the logistics so I wasn’t able to tailor the event to what I was hoping it to be the most.
2. I thought an online submission system via our website would’ve helped.
3. I thought formatting the emails we sent out may have helped a bit better.
4. The hackathon started slightly late because of a late speaker, which really shouldn’t happen.
5. Technical difficulties were everywhere and it felt that the people working didn’t know what was happening entirely. I thought there was miscommunication between some levels of planning.

However, I think we did do a great job on some of the other parts:

1. Keeping participants engaged and learning about entrepreneurship, climate change, and business thinking.
2. Interacting with participants and learning about their stories. I believed that we shouldn’t be on our phones and we should be interacting with the participants, which is what we did.
3. I did an interview with one of the speakers, a fire-side chat, and it was my first time doing it. I was shaking in my pants and I was glad that I got it over with. Next time, I should be more prepared.
4. We had a lot of fun as a team learning about event planning, running our dream event, and learning about the history and city of Atlanta.
5. We had good engagement from the participants which gave them an opportunity to learn about our brand, culture, and people.