Students from Concordia's Student Media Services recently held the International Hackathon Shanghai, an event that had students from around the city devising, discussing and developing "life hacks" to make our lives more efficient. Teams of international students from middle school to high school had 10 hours to explore innovative solutions for some of life's everyday hassles. Some of the winning hacks included, a cross-platform APP that helps students get to the buses on time, an addictive game about queueing in line, and a smart outlet for your home that is controlled by text message.
Alec Walker from Xinchejian, Shanghai's first hackerspace, joined the event as a Design Thinking Workshop lecturer and had this to say about the Concordia hackathon: "For me, as a workshop leader, it was fun as well as inspiring. The entire event was organized and run by high school students, who did a good job planning ahead and paid impressive attention to detail during the event. The attendees were energetic, curious, and friendly, and the space and materials were nicer than I am used to. For me, the most impressive part was that the competition included a problem discovery component; participants were challenged to seek and define compelling problems to solve as well as exert their technical know-how creating new things."
The hard work of putting together the event was well worth it for Concordia senior and student organizer Yiluo L., who praised the creativity and innovation of all of the teams at the International Hackathon Shanghai. "The dedication and passion people show is incredible!" she says.
Yiluo is no stranger to the creative and fast-paced environment one expects at a hackathon. Back in October, she and her team received the DJI Award of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the 2016 HACKxFDU hackathon at Fudan University.