Introduction:
Hey there, your friendly neighborhood developer returns with tales from the Smart India Hackathon 2023 journey! I am going to share the learning and experiences that led our team to win the Smart India Hackathon 2023 and will help you in your journey to become the next SIH winner. Grab your Coffee as we go on this ride and experience this journey.
First Round
Typically, the first hurdle in the SIH race is an intra-college round where teams are handpicked by the college, So usually colleges pick teams for the Smart India Hackathon. But in 2023, things changed! They skipped that step. Instead, all teams got a chance.
Second Round
Ah, then came the crucial second stage. All teams nationwide had to fill out a form that was their ticket to the Grand Finale of SIH'23. This form was no joke – it demanded a concise presentation (think 4-5 slides max), a detailed idea description, a video showcasing the prototype, and of course, the details about the team members. This round was the make-it-or-break-it moment determining which teams would be strutting their stuff at the Grand Finale.
Our Team was working on the problem statement SIH 1500 which was regarding the Education of Specially Abled People and was under the Government of Jharkhand. All of the Team members drilled down to the very depth of the problem statement and we came up with a project idea that seemed freaking great and freaking difficult to apply at the same time.
Our concept centered around creating an online meeting platform where specially-abled individuals could use hand signs, and the person on the other end could understand the message through subtitles. This would make communication smooth between those who know sign language and those who don't. For our submission, instead of a working prototype, we presented a video showcasing a machine learning model that could recognize alphabets through hand signs because that was all we had built and It was only after submission that we realized that all the other teams had much detailed presentation so now we pretty much looked like this.
So here is the Key, Even if you're not confident in your presentation or prototype like us, go all out in your idea description. Keep it brief and make sure it covers everything – from what your project can do to how it could generate revenue, and help society, just go all out here to cover every aspect. Our idea description was a massive 23 pages, showing just how much we poured into detailing every aspect of our plan, despite any shortcomings in other parts.
The Grand Finale
At midnight on December 5, we were scrolling through the list, and bam! We found out we made it to the Grand Finale of the Smart India Hackathon. The team was buzzing with excitement, each of us on an adrenaline high. But here's the catch – our project was only about 5-10% done. That meant we had roughly 10 days to hustle and get as much of the project completed as possible, along with all the documents work SIH needed from us and our college.
Fast forward to December 18, the day before the hackathon. Our team arrived at PIET Jaipur for the grand finale. Boys being boys, we kicked things off with a wrestling competition in our hostel room before getting down to business. First stop: the registration desk for all the necessary paperwork.
By this time, we'd managed a decent chunk of the project, but there was a crucial piece left: integrating our main feature, the Meeting with subtitles. So, on the night of the 18th, we dived into the front-end work, burning the midnight oil until 12. Then, we set our alarms for 6 AM, ready to dive back in for a relentless 36-hour hustle ahead.
The hackathon began at 9 AM on 19th December and by the time it was 2 PM, we faced our first mentoring round, where we presented every detail of our project to the judges. Honestly, we felt pretty good about our chances right then and there because the judges seemed blown away by our idea.
The First Evaluation
Skipping to 6:30 PM, it was time for our first evaluation round, a big one. During those few hours between 2 PM and 6 PM, we hustled hard to incorporate all the changes suggested by the mentors. Here's a tip I'd like to share: don't spill all the beans in the first mentoring round, Don't tell mentors everything in the first mentoring round itself. This tactic worked in our favor because some of the features the mentors suggested were already implemented by us and this bought us more time.
But here's the kicker: We Messed Up Big Time in the first evaluation round. Our presentation lacked structure, and it felt like everyone on the team was speaking at once, creating chaos and suddenly we could see our chances of winning going down drastically. We received some major feedback and suggestions like to make the project Specific to Jharkhand and not global, drilling down to only necessary features, and removing all the features that were not much needed.
After receiving that critical feedback, it was game time. Red Bull cans in hand, we gathered around the round table to figure out our next moves. Through our research, we discovered that blindness was a significant issue in Jharkhand, prompting us to shift our focus. We delved into how the Jharkhand government could integrate our project into the education system using smart boards. That's when we made the call to convert all our website content into Hindi, the second most spoken language in Jharkhand. Moreover, the judges seemed to be more interested in our Online Orbit Writer rather than our meeting feature and we immediately understood that and decided to work and focus our time on improving the Orbit Writer. These are only a few major changes from the list of changes that we implemented overnight.
Rather than building and piling on more features, we pivoted. We directed our efforts toward enhancing the existing functionalities. It was all hands on deck to refine what we already had in place. We realized that judges were more excited about our Orbit Writer than the Online Meeting Feature and we immediately shifted our focus to improve Orbit Writer by adding more languages and voice assistance. Even though we believed that Meeting Idea was a better one, instead of fighting over that with judges and proving our point, all of us were flexible enough to shift our focus to Orbit Writer because at last, that's what seemed to increase our chances of staying in the game.
For the next seven hours, it was a relentless grind. We meticulously implemented every suggestion, ensuring we covered every angle because the upcoming evaluation round was make-or-break. One significant addition was incorporating voice guidance on our website, aiming to make it accessible for visually impaired individuals. This step was crucial in enabling easy navigation for the blind.
The Second Evaluation
At 11:00 AM, the next evaluation round arrived, and there we were, facing the judges once more. But this time, we were ready—fully prepared with our speech, presentation, and a smooth flow in everything we did. It was our shining moment, and it paid off. We showcased how much we had improved overnight, following their suggestions religiously. The judges were thoroughly impressed by our drastic transformation and our dedication to incorporating their advice. This evaluation not only brought us back into the game but also gave us the hope of winning. The only feedback we received in this round was to add one feature and also make the last and final evaluation round count!
One crucial piece of advice I'd love to share is to understand your judges and their priorities as quickly as possible. We learned this lesson right after the first evaluation round. It became crystal clear that our judges weren't fixated on our tech stack or a stunning user interface. What they truly cared about was the solution itself.
Knowing what mattered most to them early on helped us tailor our approach and focus on delivering precisely what they were seeking: a viable solution to the problem at hand.
The Final Evaluation and Result
The feature we were told to implement wasn't too challenging; luckily, a significant part was already in place, and one of our teammates had been quietly building an app on the side, a card we hadn't shown the judges yet. As the hackathon drew to a close at 5 PM, it was a frenzy of coding until the very last moment. Keyboards stopped clattering, and everyone rushed to upload their code to the provided files and drives.
The final evaluation kicked off at 6 PM, we gave it our all, and believe me, the Meeting Idea that we thought of as the Main Feature was treated as a side feature that too was incomplete and we focused all our strength on emphasizing the Orbit Writer because we knew that's what the judges wanted and once again, the judges were impressed. That gave us a surge of hope to win the finale. Our final presentation was flawless, covering every detail, and we sealed it with a collective fist bump.
The tension mounted as we eagerly awaited the results. Originally set to be announced by 9:00 PM, delays due to speeches pushed it back. But then, the moment of truth arrived—Smart India Hackathon 2023: We won! It's a highlight-of-the-year kind of moment, overflowing with happiness and excitement that lingers long after.
Closing Thoughts
In the grand tale of Smart India Hackathon 2023, our team's journey was nothing short of a whirlwind. From late-night brainstorming to last-minute coding frenzies, we navigated challenges in the best possible way. We adapted and improved our project based on feedback, aiming to solve real problems.
Winning wasn't just about winning; it showed our teamwork and the strength of our ideas. As we finish this amazing journey, I hope our story inspires and teaches you something new. May it light up your path to find success in your career. Thankyou for Reading, Good luck!
