https://www.hackai.org/(March 7-8)
— To learn more about HackAI, visit their official website!
General Information about HackAI
UTD's biggest Hackathon this semester, HackAI is coming VERY soon! Organized by the Artificial Intelligence Society at UTD. Check-in for HackAI will begin on March 7th at 7:30am CST, and the event will take place in the ECSW Atrium at UTD.
We have interviewed Anveetha, the President of AIS and the person in charge of organizing HackAI, to share insider knowledge about the event and its sponsors, and to offer advice for anyone who wants to compete. HackAI is not like any other hackathon; their goal, as stated by Anveetha, is to demystify AI and help participants walk away from the hackathon with some more knowledge learned. HackAI is already looking quite different this year; gaining a Major League Hacking sponsorship. Through MLH, AIS can provide hardware and more tracks that students can compete in, and give the opportunity for more involvement with other schools, making HackAI a more exciting place for the participants.
Benefits of Participating in HackAI
For Computer Science majors, the experience and development exposure through hackathons such as HackAI is incredible. Speaking from Industry, HackAI gives students exposure to these companies, and if the companies like the students who are building sponsor-tracks, the company could provide the students with an opportunity to forge relationships with company representatives.
For the Non-Computer Science majors, HackAI could still benefit you! Anveetha talked about how HackAI is meant to help people understand how to start a project and how to build onto that project, even if you haven’t done it before. HackAI is intended to be a learning experience, whether that is how to implement AI into your ideas, how to use AI effectively, or how to build AI to make a project happen, and if you work with a team, you are able to implement your ideas with your team.
Advice & Tips from Anveetha
If HackAI is your first hackathon, there are a few things that Anveetha advises you to do to prepare and experience during the Hackathon:
1. Try to walk away from the event, learning as much as possible.
2. Try and finish what you work on, even if it’s not perfect or the best possible creation, you spent 24 hours working, creating, and learning.
3. Simply try your best and do as much as you can within those 24 hours.
If you’re looking to win a track, the core thing you should focus on is a good pitch and a good idea. Anveetha states that since a technical implementation of a product within 24 hours is such a difficult task, having a good understanding of what the problem is, having a good idea with potential, and having a good sense of how to present your ideas to the judges is very important for victory. Overall, make sure your pitch is as perfect as possible.
How to Stand Out
If you truly want your project to stand out at HackAI, Anveetha says there is one type of project that is unique and interesting: hardware projects. Hardware projects are hands-on, and this creates a unique and impressive project, especially if you are able to implement AI machine learning into the hardware projects.
However, to truly win, you need to stand out in your presentation. When presenting to the judges, Anveetha says to have a powerful hook, something to grab the judges' attention. Sometimes it can be a drag for judges to hear the same monotone voice giving a boring presentation, so cutting that boring-ness to replace it with something that captivates the judges senses. Also, having an interesting problem statement and following through with how that problem statement can be solved is important.
All Other Information You Need To Know
Unfortunately, some things could disqualify you, primarily stealing someone else’s ideas or intellectual property, starting ahead of time, non-team collaboration, or making changes after the submission deadline.
If you were planning on being a walk-in, you could be accepted; it just depends on availability. Anyone who applied can walk in; those who are accepted get a reserved spot at HackAI, and those who are wait-listed should show up at check-in time and wait for any spots that open up.
Finally, we asked Anveetha what she wanted people to feel as they left HackAI on Sunday. She stated that hackathons can feel hard throughout the 24 hours of creation; you could lose motivation, feel like quitting, but if you're able to push through and follow through with the idea that you started with, you should be incredibly proud of yourself. If you are able to come out of it with a working product, a working project, that is even more impressive; if you win, you should feel even prouder of yourself for accomplishing a feat like you did. Overall, the goal, at the end of the day, is for everyone who attends to learn something during the event.
