Hackathon Experience At PSG Engineering College, Coimbatore

Hello everyone, a warm welcome to all. In this blog, I am going to share my hackathon experience at PSG Engineering College, Coimbatore. By using this opportunity, I will explain the entire experience I had there, what activities we participated in, and how the days ended. So read until the end because I will also share some important suggestions. So without any delay, let’s start… While I was in my third year of my BTech degree, I learned about this competition from our department. I belong to the CSE department, so we receive many competition announcements around our city.

Similarly, we received this hackathon invitation from PSG Tech. Our HOD also encouraged students to actively participate in many competitions and allocated OD for those participants, supporting us greatly. The hackathon invitation was circulated in our student WhatsApp group, which included the list of events organized and their timings. They also offered hostel and food facilities for the participating students.

The registration fee for individuals was 500 INR, which covered food, accommodation, and participation in numerous competitions. I thought it was a great opportunity because the event spanned three days and included hostel accommodations. So, I decided to participate and asked my friends who were interested to join. Though many were not willing, my friends Syam, Revanth, and Mohan accepted my invitation. We registered for the events and decided to stay in the same hostel room. After completing the registration, some other friends wanted to join us, but I initially hesitated because they were female friends. I was concerned about their parents’ permissions and the stricter hostel restrictions for girls. Eventually, I spoke to their parents, got permission, and we started our journey to Coimbatore.

A total of 10 members, including me, from our university set off at 7 PM and reached there at 8 AM the next day. I was so excited to visit PSG because it was my dream college, although I didn’t score high enough in my higher studies to get in. Once we arrived, volunteers at the gate guided us. We took some photos and walked inside, enjoying the beautiful, tree-filled campus with the sound of birds and a calm atmosphere. As we walked in, I remembered a childhood friend studying there but didn’t have her number. I got it from another friend and called her.

After a prank call, I revealed myself, and she agreed to meet me. She came to meet us within 15 minutes, and after catching up, I explained that we had five female friends with us who needed to check into the ladies’ hostel. She kindly helped them check in, and we boys headed to our hostel to check in as well. At the boys’ hostel, we showed our university IDs and competition registration forms. After verification, a volunteer showed us to our room. We were pleased to find the hostel facilities were excellent, unlike a previous hackathon experience at National Engineering College. Here, we had attached bathrooms, good beds, and even locks on the doors.

We had our first competition at 2 PM, so we rested in our hostel rooms and later had breakfast in the hostel mess using our hackathon ID cards. After freshening up, we went to the venue for our first competition, a paper presentation. We presented our project and answered about 80% of the questions asked. Later, we met up with our friends who had also participated in other competitions. The day ended with a lot of good memories. I realized how capable I was and regretted the laziness that kept me in my comfort zone, preventing me from exploring more in life.

That evening, we went to an ice cream shop and shared our hostel experiences. My childhood friend joined us, along with some of her friends who were also my schoolmates. It was great to catch up with them after a long time. We had to part ways by 7 PM due to the hostel curfew. The next day, I made a schedule for the remaining two days as we had only participated in one competition on the first day.

According to the invitation, we had the chance to attend four competitions on day two because the timings were flexible. My plan for day two was: 9:00-10:00 AM: Quiz competition 11:00-12:00 PM: User interface design competition 2:00-3:00 PM: Web development competition 3:30-4:30 PM: Coding competition After completing these competitions, we all sat together and shared our experiences.

On the third day, we eagerly awaited the competition results. My team won three prizes, and I individually won two prizes. I won the user interface design and coding competitions, while our team won the quiz, paper presentation, and web development competitions. We received cash prizes, and our university was declared the overall champion of the event. After receiving our awards, we bid farewell to my school friends and left. While returning, I was in tears because I had collected so many good memories during the journey and got the chance to meet my friends. They were also emotional as we left. Through this experience, I realized that in the journey of life, we only take our memories with us. It’s essential to make good memories, so I encourage you all to do the same. Thank you. Written by Hari Haran