Overview

Hack the North is Canada's biggest hackathon, where 1,000+ students come together from around the world to experiment and create unique software or hardware projects. It empowers and enables teams to make something great in 36 hours by providing an abundance of resources like workshops, mentors, sponsors, and hardware.

I was a hacker at Hack the North for 2 years before this role, and it was a big reason why I got into tech and wanted to go to the University of Waterloo. This year, I was an organizer working on frontend developement and helping with running workshops.

Projects

Despite it being a hackathon, the tech is suprisingly interesting and most of our tools are custom made. The entire frontend team worked on the static site and hacker applications, then I led the development for the RSVP and hardware tool.

Static Site

This was our first project to show off this year's branding. Every year there's a new theme, and the designs are always super cool; check out the 2022 and 2023 sites:

This year's theme was more dreamy and imaginative, focusing on dreaming big and inclusivity in tech. I worked on the footer, Waterloo Engineering, and judges section.

Hacker Applications

Similar to the static site, we also built this from scratch according to the new theme and designs. I worked on the car customization section, and helped with some other sections as well.

RSVP

This was the first project I led. It was fairly short-term, with minor changes to existing content, form fields, styling, and the data pipeline.

Hardware Tool

Leading this project was much more involved as we rebuilt the tool from scratch. Based on the PRD, the goal was to streamline hardware checkout, improving efficiency and organization so organizers could focus on fair distribution and properly supporting hackers.

The Experience

I'm glad that I got a chance to be on the other side of the experience coming from a hacker's perspective. The event was impactful on me as a hacker, and bringing that experience together for over a thousand others was really fulfilling.

If you haven't been to Hack the North yet, you should apply to attend or volunteer next year!