Reboot Kerala Hackathon 2020

Success is sweet, but the secret is sweat...

The 15-day preparation window for the hackathon flew right past us in the blink of an eye and there we were: at Federal Institute of Science and Technology (FISAT) on March 6th for our 36-hour long hackathon. The Reboot Kerala hackathon series is designed to address the numerous problems faced by various government organizations and solve them by bringing bright minds together.

Our domain was health, and our task was to design an innovative and effective solution for the various health issues faced by office workers sitting for long hours. The hackathon series had gained enough momentum to attract companies, celebrities, IAS officers, and the press. Facing them in addition to the 5 stages of the jury was a challenging task.

We designed an attachment to the chair (in the form of a cushion) which contained sensors that calculated the posture accuracy. ID cards are mandatory in government offices. We integrated it with a heartbeat sensor. Our machine learning algorithms calculated the blink rate of the user and also predicted the optimum monitor brightness from the lighting conditions. In addition to these features, we included a pedometer, a BMI calculator, a calories-burnt calculator, a hydration tracker as well as a sleep tracker. All these were presented using a Flutter mobile application as well as a desktop application built using Electron.

We had a lot to implement and 36 hours seemed like too little time. We had many knowledgeable guests like the Mayor and the Chief Justice of the High Court who gave us out-of-the-box suggestions. Our mentor, Ajay James kept our spirits high. With very less sleep and high motivation levels, we kept going. We struggled in the last few minutes to integrate the different modules. We were well prepared for the presentation and the rapid-fire questionnaire that followed.

We bagged the second prize of Rs. 30,000: a reward for hard work. The sleepless night and the stressful adventure finally bore fruit. We were beyond ecstasy. I got placement offers from two companies too. This is one of those memorable experiences which we would cherish forever in your lives.