Sustainability Hackathon 2022 - Seneca
By Aafiyah Degani, Student - GSL/GBD
Have you ever heard of a Hackathon?
More specifically, have you heard of the Seneca Sustainability Hackathon?
If not, you are not the only one!
I had never heard of the term Hackathon, but now that I have garnered experience with this great cause, I’m hooked!
I know, enough with the suspense already:
The Seneca Sustainability Hackathon is a problem-solving competition where a series of teams collaborate, innovate and create ideas to solve the “Challenge Set” provided.
Professor Christopher Hurezeanu introduced me to the Seneca Sustainability Hackathon 2022, and I am profoundly grateful to have taken part in this initiative!
The Seneca Sustainability Hackathon had 4 challenge sets
Corporate Social Responsibilites
Global Causes
Cities and Municipalities
Net Zero Goals
Each of these has sub-set that participants could choose from to work on.
I chose Global Causes - Yoga for the Being. I was given the opportunity to work with 2 other Seneca Students - Sepehr Alipour and Victor Magharetti - both enrolled in the Computer Programming Program.
Together we came up with a solution of implementing a micro-credential for professional yoga teachers with the right qualifications that could assist in enabling or generating employment in the field of health and wellness. While they worked on the more technical aspects of this initiative, such as creating the wireframes and developing the Proof of Technology, I worked on the business plan of our entire concept. We named the application YOGZY.
In my Global Hospitality Service Leadership and Global Hospitality Business Development Graduate Certificate programs at Seneca Business, (School of Hospitality and Tourism) we had an applied research course - Integrated Project I & II. This course helped me identify the problems and needs of the challenge set; which enabled me to develop an appropriate business plan with suitable recommendations. This experience provided me to use the storytelling, leadership and team skills I acquired in this course which was a large component of exploration in this Graduate Certificate Program.
The hackathon went on for a total of 5 days. On the third day, all participants were to submit their proposals in the form of a video and provide a brief summary of their experience. After the judges evaluated the submissions of the 90 teams, only 37 qualified for the first round (and YES, we were one of them!).
We had 2 more days to work on our concepts and challenges and implement the proof of technology created along with our perfect pitch. At the time 2 days seemed like a very limited time constraint, but it was a whirlwind and a brilliant experience.
Of the 37 teams that went into the next round, 13 teams were chosen as winners for their particular category, (and YES you guessed it, we were one of the 13 as well!). 4 of those were selected as challenge set winners, they presented live to the judges and there was 1 final winner in the end!
The week of the hackathon presented a series of opportunities that included, but were not limited to; interacting with others, learning something new, and being a part of an initiative that matters! It was something I wish I could do more often! As I had chosen Yoga Challenge set - yoga sessions were available in the evenings for a few days during the hackathon which was exciting!
I have learned about what a hackathon is by participating in it! I definitely recommend everyone to take part in the next one! You can read more on the Hackathon here: https://www.senecahackathon.com/#about
