GeekOut is a Bootcamp cum Hackathon organised by the Government Technology Agency (GovTech). There were multiple sharing sessions and workshops on various fields of technology which broadened my knowledge on areas such as Cybersecurity, Sensors and Internet of Things (SIoT), etc. I was also glad to meet students from different polytechnics who were also interested in various fields of IT. On top of that, I was able to chat with the developers to learn about their projects and working experiences. I got to learn more about GovTech and I thought that I will have a good experience if I could have my internship at GovTech during the final year of my diploma course.
Hackathon
The event schedule was from 30th September 2019 to 4 October 2019. Besides the workshops and sharing sessions, we were presented with a list of problem statements and each team were to pick one to solve during the Hackathon. Below is the problem statement that my team chose, followed the vision and desired outcome.
Problem Statement
As times are changing and technology is moving, we are more connected than ever, but at the same time losing our kampung community spirit. People living in Singapore do not look to our community for help and aid when they can be easily provided.
Vision
Connect the demand and supply of help and aid to families and individuals in a community, to foster an air of friendliness among neighbours.
Outcome
- To create a safe and friendly platform for people to connect and help one another
- To ensure that the platform is not abused and mistreated.
Champion
Together with my team members, we developed a mobile application to foster better community relations in Singapore named Door2Door. After rounds of brainstorming and hard work, we pitched our idea and demoed the prototype application to the panellists.
Being Awarded the Collaborative Award
I am extremely honoured to receive one of the awards that represent GovTech's core values - Agile, Bold, and Collaborative. I am thankful that I was able to help my teammates and peers from other teams even during the hackathon stage. One of the teams was using React Native to create their prototype, and we were using React Native and Expo as well. When one of their team members approached me to discuss the challenges that they were facing, I did some research and was able to solve the issue that was holding their team back.
Conclusion
I enjoyed meeting like-minded people during the hackathon, and if you are interested in learning about different technologies and learning more about GovTech, GeekOut is organised twice yearly for both polytechnic and JC students, and I highly recommend you to sign up for it.