First Hackathon

Hello, you guys! It’s being a while! I hope you’ve been having a great summer! We have only a few weeks left :/ For me, this summer has been a really good one; a perfect mix of fun, Netflix, and code. One of the highlights of my summer was competing in the Detroit Public Library’s #hackDPL Hackathon. Business and technology association Automation Alley offered computer programmers and mobile application developers $5,000 to develop an app for Detroit Public Library, so I and two other interns at Detroit Labs, Andrew Giang and Nick Virag, decided to form a team and sign up for the Hackathon. The 24-hour Hackathon was scheduled to run from 7pm July 11 to 7pm July 12 at Automation Alley’s Detroit office, located inside Grand Circus Detroit on the 4th floor of Broderick Tower, 1570 Woodward Ave.

Andrew and Nick were both experienced Android developers. I was the only iOS/iPhone developer in the group, so we opted to work an Android app for #hackDPL

From left: Andrew, Nick, Tobi

Hackers. I’m somewhere in there

We spent those 24 hours writing a lot of code, designing, eating snacks, and drinking 5-hour Energy.

In the end, we were able to come up with a very good Andriod app. We built an app that allows users to scan the barcode of any book, get info on that book, and place a hold on it. The app also gives users up-to-date news about Detroit Public Library, important events (with ability to add any of those events to calendar), and general information about the library. Another feature of the app was “Ask the Librarian” which allows users to send questions to the librarian.

Our app placed second! We received $300 worth of gift cards! I haven’t still finished using mine. All the free lunches! Life is good. I gained a valuable lesson from #hackDPL: I/you can create things and make things happen, if I/you just put in the time. Shut out the distractions and get stuff done!

It was a really good experience for us. We were able to build a great app in just 24 hours. I’m definitely looking forward to participating in more hackathons. Also, I found out that I can get very loquacious when I stay up for too long. 🙂

That’s it for now. Enjoy the rest of your summer! And see you y’all on campus soon!