During my reading week in the first semester of my second year of studies, I participated in the Bournemouth University X ClickASnap & Teemill Hackathon event, run by the Computing and Informatics department!
This was the second Hackathon event I have taken part in, and these events were open to all students within both the Computing & Informatics department as well as the Creative Technology department, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
For those who are unaware of what a hackathon entails, they are events in which teams compete in the same programming/concept challenge over a set number of days, and all teams present their ideas on the final day for judging. Here is what happened on each day!
Day 1 – Monday
On the first day, myself and all the other participants met on the Talbot Campus to be introduced to both companies involved in the event, as well as the task we had to complete during the week. ClickASnap is a local photo-sharing company based just outside Bournemouth, and Teemill is a sustainable clothes printing business based nearby on the Isle of Wight. The task we were all given for the week was to create a link between the two companies, to give ClickASnap users a way to get photos from the platform printed onto clothing, using Teemill’s services, and to integrate generative AI into the process.
Day 2 – Tuesday
The team all met up on Tuesday to continue to form the ideas for our project from the day before and finalise our plans. We chose the generative AI’s we were going to use for the project and continued with the programming we had started the day before. We decided to adapt ClickASnap’s website to add a new button to allow users to share the view and buy the design on a t-shirt, which we achieved using the Teemill API. The aim was to make it as actionable for ClickASnap as possible, which is why we started by adapting their website to include this new feature.
Day 3 – Wednesday
On Wednesday, we were allowed to show our progress to several people from the industry, who work for the companies involved in the event, ClickASnap and Teemill, as well as other local companies like Cold Banana, a software development company based in Bournemouth. From this, we gained valuable feedback, which we started to act upon.
Day 4 – Thursday
On the penultimate day of the challenge, we finalised our presentation, and recorded video demonstrations to add to our presentation to show our working project. Our final product integrated generative AI in order to generate image captions of the photo to be shared, and also used another generative AI in order to create a black and white sketch version of the image.
All the participants at the awards ceremony
Day 5 – Friday
On the final day, all teams that competed were given 10 minutes to present their work to academics within the Computing & Informatics department, ClickASnap and Teemill employees, as well as other industry professionals.
My team got one of the runner up awards, which we received for the best development project, and all of my team members each received Amazon vouchers as our prize! Various free merchandise for ClickASnap and Teemill, as well as the Computing & Informatics department was also given out at the end of the prize giving, which was really nice! Overall it was a brilliant experience, as well as a great way to boost your CV and meet new likeminded people!
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