Students arrive at a hackathon- without friends, without an idea, without the courage to make a pitch for other participants to join their team.
Hackathon participants can be sorted into teams of 3 based on either common interests or different interests.
- A student logs their interest in the hardware, software or business field via Google Forms.
- This data is stored in a Google Spreadsheet.
- Our web-app (hosted on Domains.com) has two buttons: "Common Interests" and "Different Interests." The hackathon coordinator can choose how to create teams.
- A Google Spreadsheet node module accesses the spreadsheet. An algorithm creates teams according to the button pressed in Step 3.
- The team assignments are displayed horizontally on the website.
- Working with express.js for the first time: understanding syntax, workflow, directories
- Pulling data from Google Spreadsheets: finding a method (API) to do so efficiently
- Graphic design: setting the colors of the cards
- Good team communication was established at the start of the project
- Many ideas surfaced during the "brain dump"
- We could acknowledge when a project idea had already been built/executed, and could move on to something new with no hard feelings
- Planned the final project with outlines, diagrams, pseudocode, pictures
- Overcame all the Development Challenges
- Be careful with merge conflicts.
- Always look for a node module for your project before you start building.
- Document all your work: brainstorming, planning stages, code.
- Don't be afraid to share ideas. (Speak up!)
- Have multiple ideas or methods.
- Refine for use in future hackathons.
- Collect feedback from users to improve our product and better suit their needs.