Within 24 hours, Hackathon at USTH – the creation contest, gave chances for its students to bring out their awesome ideas to create some practical products which can solve life demands.
“Localize” Hackathon idea in MIT
In 2015, Dang Lam Vu – a second-year student of ICT faculty at USTH had a chance to have a 3-month internship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the most prestigious technology university in the world. Immediately, he was impressed by the inspiration of Hackathon contest at MIT.
Participating Hackathon contest at MIT, the students are well-equipped all the necessary tools and even the most desirable which all the IT fans are dreaming about. In limited time and space, they are requested to make a final product to solve some problems in our lives.
When coming back Vietnam, Lam shared that he anticipated organizing Hackathon at USTH and FabLab – a dynamic club of the university at first. Needless to say how the idea was welcomed at USTH at once.
“Till Hackathon was organized at USTH, Hackathon contest in Vietnam is just for software programmers. However, there is no Hackathon contest for technology students like the one at USTH,” Lam Vu shared.
In Hackathon contest at USTH, participants have to make the products from almost nothing except technical tools, he emphasized. “All the teams are not only cooperating with each other like partners but also living with at the university as sisters and brothers to finalize the products,” he went on.
Following the success of Hackathon 1, which was organized for students of FabLab only, Hackathon 2 was expanded for all USTH students. The contest attracted 31 students, divided into 7 groups. Its theme was about appliances for pets. Four criteria to evaluate the students are creativity, practicality, teamwork, and presentation skills.
24-hours to live in creativity
Within 24 hours (from 12 pm on March 17th, 2018 to 12 pm on March 18th, 2017), all the participants have to give ideas to create and finalize their products.
Before starting the contest, all the teams were given the same technical box, which is revealed when the contest officially began. Besides, the participants can also use some machine of FabLab such as 3D printers, laser cutters, welding machines, drilling machines, and CNC machine.
To make sure that the participants can manipulate the machines well, the USTH organizing team spent two days coaching the 7 teams such as how to use Arduino software, welding machine, 3D printers.
“I never thought that I can make a product like that,” Nguyen Hoang Quan Anh, a first-year student of USTH, a former student of talent high school in Ha Long province shared. He was quite satisfied with his idea about deodorizing bad smell in Hamster’s cage.
Like other participants, Quan Anh had to work really hard and didn’t sleep at that night. However, all of them were really happy because they were encouraged and could talk their own ideas.
“We can raise our ideas, which is our greatest motivation to nurture our creativity. We all appreciate the spirit of the contest. The creativity can’t grow without the support from the university,” Quan Anh said.
All the teams made great effort to complete their tasks. Nonetheless, there are only three most excellent teams were awarded. Pet Gear of leader Nguyen Minh Ngoc was the champion of the Hackathon 2, closely followed by CCMNT and FST, which stood at the second and third place, respectively.
Spreading the Hackathon spirit to the technology students
Le Viet Hoa, Chairwoman of FabLab USTH, a second-year student of Food Science and Technology (FST), Head of the organizing team in Hackathon 2 hoped that Hackathon should not be limited in USTH only, the contest should be spread out in all the student community.
After the success of Hackathon 1 and 2, FabLab USTH is expected to hold Hackathon 3 in the third quarter of this year. The Hackathon 3 will open to all students in Hanoi.
On behalf of USTH, Prof. Patrick Boiron said that USTH’s motto is to nurture and develop student’s passion for technology and science. Therefore, the school is very supportive to organize innovative contests like Hackathon to help the students to practice the theory and realize their ideas.
