Hacktech 19 @ Caltech
This is my experience at one of the best Hackathons in one of the best universities in the entire world. The article consists of what was my learning and how can you too apply for Hacktech and visit one of the most beautiful and prestigious university campuses in the states.
About Caltech
Caltech is one of the most prestigious education institutions in the world and is famous for its Jet propulsion laboratory and of course for its world-class engineering education.
I first came to know about Caltech through the famous sitcom, The Big Bang theory, where the glorified Caltech over other American institutions, well it was justified when I visited Caltech.
MLH
MLH has been a boon for college students looking for Internships and Jobs at reputed companies by showcasing their talents through participating in the Hackathons. MLH is a company that operates a league for student hackathons. It is now expanding out of North America providing opportunities to students in various other countries in Asia and Europe.
India’s first MLH hackathon was organised by VIT Vellore and was a huge success.
How did I get in this
I came to know about the hackathons when I was in my second year, and frankly, I participated in my first hackathon just to get free swags and because my friends were participating. But then I came to know how interesting a hackathon can be, even if you don't win a hackathon, you make networks, you learn about new projects and you learn about effective time management.
I came to know about MLH through my roommate and I applied at the Caltech’s Hacktech because it was the only Hackathon I could attend then. I applied to it through this link and one can explore various other opportunities too.
My team and my project
My project was named Sign Learning which was a built hacking the Leap Motion and implementing some basic Logistic Regression. The aim was to track the pose and orientation of the user’s hand and compare it against a database of know hand signs.
My team consisted of two students from UC Irvine and USC. Both being computer science students taught me numerous new tricks to do any project. This was my introduction to Machine learning, before this, I haven’t worked on any Machine learning project or in fact any full software project without any use of hardware in it. Despite knowing that I am a rookie and am currently learning to code, they took me in their team and taught me several amazing things in the span of forty-eight hours. E.g. This was when I came to know that logistic regression is a simple yet powerful tool for classification and how to reverse engineer Leap motion to capture custom databases.
How can you apply to this?
Well, it's pretty simple, just go to the MLH website choose the hackathon you are willing to apply and simply register. Make sure to inform your school’s Dean before applying so that all the formalities like your travel reimbursement and attendance is taken care of (especially when you’re a VITian.)
