Hacks for Hacker MLH Hackathon submission
From a number of the hackathons that the team members have taken part in, finding an idea to build for the hackathon is always one of the most challenging as well as having a place where you can easily find resources to help you with your project. The team saw this as an opportunity to create a platform that allows hackers to generate ideas from simply filling in a few inputs and also have access to all the learning resources such as videos and blogs in one place.
HackStorm is designed to be a platform that you can use not only generating ideas for your hackathon but is also designed to help you find all the resources you need for your project in one place. This includes access to YouTube's search feature with some example project videos and blogs displayed.
HackStorm has been designed to help hackers find all the resources for their projects in one place, whether you have an idea or don't, you can always access the resources that HackStorm has to offer
We were heavily inspired by the revised version of Double Diamond design process, which not only includes visual design, but a full-fledged research cycle in which you must discover and define your problem before tackling your solution & then finally deploy it.
- Discover: a deep dive into the problem we are trying to solve.
- Define: synthesizing the information from the discovery phase into a problem definition.
- Develop: think up solutions to the problem.
- Deliver: pick the best solution and build that.
HackStorm was designed using Figma for a sample of how the web app would look lik. Below is what the team had initially designed but you will notice that there are slight variations from the finished web app
- Streamlit
- Firebase
- Vanilla CSS
- OpenAI API
- Pandas DataFrame
- YouTube Search API
The team's proudest achievements includes being able to integrate the YouTube Search API into the project and retrieve the queries made as well as getting the web applicationto generate ideas based on the category, team size and duration.
One of major challenges that the team faced was when it came to using Streamlit for the first time and getting accustomed to using the different UI widgets that Streamlit offers. The other challange was in integrating the YouTube Search API and having it return the search results as designed.
Throughout this project, the team experienced significant personal and professional growth:
- Technical Skill Expansion: Each member acquired new technical skills, ranging from programming languages to design tools, enhancing their expertise in the field.
- Behavioral Competency Development: Collaborating on HackStorm fostered crucial behavioral skills such as communication, teamwork, leadership, and adaptability. Embracing diverse perspectives and open-mindedness were key lessons learned in achieving shared objectives.
The next thing for HackStorm is adding a search feature for the blogs so that hackers can not only search for YouTube videos but can search for different blogs as well.
Note