I've been busy with life and various commitments for a while since I last updated this blog. Today, I had time to document various life updates over the last 6 to 7 months in 2023.

**Jun to Aug 2023:**

---*Jun 2023:*---

As a student, I got to hear/know of the ***TikTok Tech Immersion Programme*** - a free, three-week intensive technical boot camp for those studying in tertiary educational institutions such as universities and polytechnics. More than 1,300 students signed up to be among the first cohort of the program. From the program, I managed to learn server fundamentals, quality assurance, and site reliability engineering from TikTok’s engineering team. It was an eye-opening experience for us as we learned from the experienced engineers how to build apps such as TikTok's video-hosting platform that can reliably handle large amounts of user traffic.

In essence, there is a lot of consideration in terms of system design and architecture, when it comes to building the scalable and distributed systems that power TikTok. I understood from the Software engineers there why certain programming languages such as Go, were chosen to build the systems at TikTok - i.e. due to its efficiency, ability to handle concurrent requests, a wide variety of use cases, and many more. The QA and SRE engineers at TikTok were also very knowledgeable and shared their testing methodologies and the various observability-related tools that are commonly used in the market.

As part of the graduation requirements for the program, we also had to complete and submit individual assignments in June to graduate with a Certificate of Completion. The individual assignments involved answering several MCQ-styled questionnaires and a final project which involved creating an Instant Messaging System using Golang, Protobuf, Kitex, Redis, and Docker. Protobuf and Kitex are open-source frameworks developed by Bytedance that help developers build microservices. It was heartening to see fellow batchmates help one another in the Telegram chat when someone encountered programming difficulties.

Overall, this was a challenging but good learning experience. ***Going through this program solidified my decision to continue learning more about backend-related technologies in the future.***

![uploaded image](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/musubi-sg.appspot.com/o/uploads%2FBob67z6n2mYFkWHSMZkWDQ8plsH3%2F1707192179301.jpeg?alt=media&token=89607e31-0dfc-4ac7-b77e-a90850f14821)
*Certificate of Completion issued by TikTok - if you complete the program successfully - i.e. Met a minimum attendance for the lessons, and completed the assignments*

For more information, you can refer to this link:

1. [TikTok launches 3-week course teaching tertiary students how to build high-performance networks
](https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/jobs/tiktok-launches-3-week-course-teaching-tertiary-students-how-to-build-high-performance-networks)
2. [TikTok Assignment Demo](https://github.com/melvincwng/tiktok_assignment_demo_2023)

---*Jul to Aug 2023:*---

In May & June 2023, I participated in the ***inaugural Singapore Nationwide AWS DeepRacer League Season 1 and 2 Competitions***. As quoted from the AWS website:

- *AWS DeepRacer is an autonomous 1/18th scale race car designed to test RL models by racing on a physical track. Using cameras to view the track and a reinforcement model to control throttle and steering, the car shows how a model trained in a simulated environment can be transferred to the real world.*

I achieved ***7th place in the Season 1 competition*** and ***3rd place in the Season 2 competition*** - and was invited to a prize presentation ceremony at NLB Punggol.

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*Prize ceremony at NLB Punggol for the AWS DeepRacer League competition*

Due to my success in the earlier competitions, ***I earned a spot and qualified for the Singapore Nationwide AWS DeepRacer League Grand Finale Competition***, which was scheduled to be held on Sep 2023. Being relatively new to AI/ML, I did not expect to achieve such results; so I was very pleased when I qualified for a spot as one of the Top 12 finalists in Singapore for the Grand Finale competition (Open Category). 

From the earlier competitions, it was evident many people were more proficient in their understanding of AI/ML technologies, or simply put - had more IT-related experience than me. ***Some competitors were veterans in the AWS DeepRacer League and had prior experience competing at the regional/international leagues.*** But that did not deter me from my determination to clinch a finalist spot - and I was ecstatic when I did achieve that :)

Seeing the fierce competition lineup for the Grand Finale (which included many experienced AWS DeepRacer competitors who have participated at the regional/international level), I was very realistic that it would probably require some form of divine miracle for me to win the competition. I knew I had to thoroughly prepare for the final competition to even achieve decent results. 

During this competition, I fervently did my research to brush up my current understanding of AI/ML. ***I read up on numerous AI technical blogs and watched multiple AWS DeepRacer videos.*** ***I even researched several AI papers from Google Scholar to gain inspiration on how to better write my reward function, optimize my hyperparameters, and fine-tune my action space.*** 

***This was an extremely tough and challenging learning process.*** I had peers who learned AI/ML before who warned me about how tough that topic is, and it was only when I dived deep into it myself that I realized what they truly meant.

I soon fell into a rabbit hole; and ***the more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know***. ***Honestly, at this point, I just wanted to get decent results for the final competition - if not very xia suay and ma lu leh if get last place for the final competition***.

It was a struggle and I'm glad that I persevered during this tumultuous learning period. When it was time to upload & submit my finalized ML model to the organizers for the competition finale, I did so with full awareness that this was the best that I could have done - and prayed to the lords above, for decent results during the final competition (I was praying to be at least median - i.e. 50th percentile; aka somewhere between 6 to 7th position out of 12 finalists).

![uploaded image](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/musubi-sg.appspot.com/o/uploads%2FBob67z6n2mYFkWHSMZkWDQ8plsH3%2F1707196668474.gif?alt=media&token=c175a91d-b5e7-4a45-85cc-49b02c4b5217)
*Well, the hard work has already been done. Regarding the rest, I'll leave it up to fate...*

**Sep to Nov 2023:**

---*Sep 2023:*---

***The day of the Competition Finale finally came.***

Honestly, I was both excited and nervous about the Grand Finale competition. ***Facing up against technologists with much more IT experience than me, I was honestly afraid that my ML model would perform poorly on the race track.*** But I decided to treat this as a learning opportunity - regardless of the results, the fact is to be able to reach the finals itself, was already an accomplishment.

![uploaded image](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/musubi-sg.appspot.com/o/uploads%2FBob67z6n2mYFkWHSMZkWDQ8plsH3%2F1707194075904.jpeg?alt=media&token=9d3c15ab-7c3d-492b-8b22-3abf04b59c5d)
*The day of the Grand Finale competition - excited yet nervous, I made my way to the competition venue in hopes of a miracle that my ML model won't screw up...*

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*Venue of the competition - we were given a special AWS T-shirt and lanyard that stated our competitor status*

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*Prizes for the Top 3 winners (Student category), Top 3 winners (Open category), and Grand Champion (the biggest trophy seen in the photo)*

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*A student being interviewed by the host/organizer of the competition*

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*For the open category, we were divided into two groups. Group 1 - the first 6 went up first. I was in Group 2 - the next 6 that went later, after Group 1 had finished racing. ***For a moment in the competition, I managed to get and secure the 3rd position :O - a decent timing of 14.228s.*** I was praying to the lords above to secure the 3rd place, and get back home with a trophy :P*

![uploaded image](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/musubi-sg.appspot.com/o/uploads%2FBob67z6n2mYFkWHSMZkWDQ8plsH3%2F1707197849591.jpeg?alt=media&token=8a58030b-9db1-48ae-95ea-06d47f9c0e39)
*Well, the competitors after me had more IT experience, and their ML models proved to be much faster than mine :(... I did my best though, so no regrets about getting 7th place out of 12 finalists (Open Category) :)*


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*Aerial view of the Singapore AWS DeepRacer League Grand Finale Competition at the atrium in One Punggol*

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*Grand Finale winner together with Dr Janil Puthucheary - Senior Minister of State - Ministry of Communications and Information*

In summary, I had a lot of fun participating as a finalist in the Grand Finale competition. The key takeaway was to treat this as a learning opportunity - to learn from more experienced technologists and get useful tips on how to improve my ML model.

In summary, here are my final results for the competition. 还不错:
- Final ranking (Open Category): ***7/12***
- Final ranking (Open + Student Category combined): ***9/24***
- Overall ranking (All participants combined in total): ***9/600+ (Top 1.5%)***

For more information on the  Singapore AWS DeepRacer Grand Finale, you can refer to the following links below:
1. [AWS drives nationwide machine learning in Singapore](https://www.aboutamazon.sg/aws-drives-nationwide-machine-learning-in-singapore)
2. [NLB x AWS Singapore Nationwide AWS DeepRacer League Grand Finale - Highlights](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQsY2ofA4Is)

---*Oct to Nov 2023:*---

***These two months (Oct & Nov) were extremely busy months for me as I juggled between courses from school and various scholarship programs that I was under.***

I finished up the last few courses from school - i.e. AWS Academy Cloud Foundations, Red Hat System Administration I (RH124), and Red Hat System Administration II (RH134). It was intriguing to learn more concepts on AWS Cloud Computing and dive into Linux administration/Command line. The courses were conducted asynchronously - online video lectures coupled with occasional in-person tutorials. I've made a bunch of summary notes which would be useful for revision in the future.

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*Beautiful sunset view of the SP campus*

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*AWS Cloud Computing Tutorial - Photo 1*

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*AWS Cloud Computing Tutorial - Photo 2*

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*Red Hat Tutorial - Photo 1*

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*Red Hat Tutorial - Photo 2*

I was also fortunate to be ***selected for several scholarships*** during this period.

Firstly, the ***GitHub Universe 2023 Scholarship*** - this scholarship provided 9 deserving recipients with an all-expenses-paid trip to the USA to attend the GitHub Universe tech conference in person - i.e., travel, accommodation, and miscellaneous expenses kindly sponsored by GitHub ($4,000 USD Approximate-Retail-Value).

![uploaded image](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/musubi-sg.appspot.com/o/uploads%2FBob67z6n2mYFkWHSMZkWDQ8plsH3%2F1707200123258.jpeg?alt=media&token=08ea52f0-45da-4907-9a65-fd61f7cb89f3)
*GitHub Scholars at the event (in Red Hoodies - Total of EIGHT different countries) together with the GitHub Education Staff - GitHub Universe San Francisco Nov 2023*

I had a lot of fun attending GHU 2023 and gained new knowledge on AI, Security, and Developer Experience. For my full detailed experiences regarding GitHub Universe 2023, you can refer to this link below:

- [My Github Universe 2023 Experiences - GitHub Universe Scholarship kindly sponsored by GitHub Education](https://melvincwng.wixsite.com/main/github-universe-2023)

Secondly, the ***Dan Kohn Scholarship*** from the Cloud Native Computing Foundation provided recipients the opportunity to virtually attend KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2023, the flagship conference of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation dedicated to Kubernetes and cloud-native computing.

![uploaded image](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/musubi-sg.appspot.com/o/uploads%2FBob67z6n2mYFkWHSMZkWDQ8plsH3%2F1707202210781.jpeg?alt=media&token=e0abd0cc-2db2-44a0-9bdf-b6c91b410ca8)
*Attended the conference and listened to a bunch of talks; I feel inspired to try out/learn more cloud-based technologies in the future*

**Dec 2023:**

Thirdly, the ***AWS AI & ML Scholarship*** provided me and other recipients access to the Udacity AI Programming with Python Nanodegree program, mentorship, and career development opportunities from industry experts ($4,000 USD Approximate-Retail-Value).

![uploaded image](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/musubi-sg.appspot.com/o/uploads%2FBob67z6n2mYFkWHSMZkWDQ8plsH3%2F1707200559806.jpeg?alt=media&token=c1f50ccf-2138-4ce4-87d1-f8dfd97014ab)
*AWS AI & ML Scholarship Recipient badge*

To successfully graduate from the scholarship program, recipients would need to complete the following requirements:

- Learn Python
- Learn Data science libraries (Numpy, Pandas, Matplotlib)
- Learn Linear Algebra & Calculus essentials
- Learn PyTorch (AI/ML framework) and concepts on Neural Networks
- Complete the necessary quizzes for each module as stated above
- Submit two AI projects, subject to grading and revision by the markers
- Attend weekly mentoring sessions on Zoom
- Optional: Finish a 'Career Services' related module (i.e. How to polish up your LinkedIn Profile and GitHub Profile)

There was a lot of content that needed to be done in 3 months (~12 weeks). Thankfully, I persisted through and managed to complete the scholarship program in Dec 2023.

Looking back, I can't believe how fast time has flown since I joined Singapore Polytechnic (SP). ***It has been ~2.5 years - from my first day stepping onto the campus (Apr 2021) till my very last day at SP (Nov 2023)***. Along the journey, I learned and grew a lot as a software developer/engineer. 

***I still have a lot to learn*** - in terms of computer science concepts and software engineering principles. With grit and determination, I will continue to pursue knowledge to hone my skills (technical & non-technical) as a software engineer.

***Let's see where life takes me in 2024! - Big plans up ahead :D***

If you managed to read till the end, I applaud you 👏 - ***Take care, good luck, and wishing you an early Happy CNY Year of the Dragon ahead. 祝你龙年吉祥，事事顺利***

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SP 2023-2023 📖📚 (and other life updates)

*Summer is a time for fun, relaxation, and making memories. This summer was no exception! I had so many great experiences, but here are my top 5 moments in July & August:*

**Moment 1: DBS C2E HackR Hackathon @ MBFC**

*One of my most memorable summer moments was participating in my 4th hackathon - i.e. the DBS C2E HackR Hackathon @ MBFC. This 72-hour hackathon brought together working professionals in the fintech industry to collaborate on innovative solutions to real-world problems. To this day, this was the most technically challenging hackathon in which I've ever participated.*

*I was part of a team of 6 who developed a Store and Forward message queue system using various tech stacks such as Python, Flask, Kafka, Redis, and SQLite. Besides the application development, I've also implemented unit tests using the 'unittest' framework in Python while my team members load-tested our application using the Locust framework. After all our unit tests and load testing have passed (and were within acceptable testing limits), we then deployed our application on Pivotal Cloud Foundry (PCF).*

*The DBS C2E HackR Hackathon was a fantastic learning experience that allowed me to learn new backend skills, improve my system design knowledge, and meet new people. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to participate in this event, and I'm excited to see what the future holds for me in hackathons.*

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**Moment 2: DBS SEED Germination Party @ Moon Rooftop Bar (Anson Rd)**

*After the C2E HackR Hackathon, I attended the DBS SEED Germination Party at Moon Rooftop Bar (Anson Rd). It was a celebratory dinner/networking session to commemorate the completion of the Graduate Talent Program at DBS. This was an amazing way to celebrate this momentous milestone for me & my fellow SEEDers. It was around this period when we also received news/emails about being admitted into the DBS High Potential Programme (HIPO).* 

*This night was a great opportunity to meet fellow SEEDers and working professionals from other departments to learn more about their projects and daily responsibilities within the organization.*

*I met a lot of interesting people at the party, including data engineers, cloud engineers, blockchain engineers, and software engineers. I learned a lot about the different projects that people are working on, and I made some valuable connections.*

*I also had a chance to enjoy the amazing views of the Singapore skyline from Moon Rooftop Bar. It was a great way to relax and unwind after a long day at work.*

*Attending networking sessions is a great way to meet new people, learn about interesting software projects, and make valuable connections. You should join one if you have the chance in the future!*

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**Moment 3: Bowling Cohesion @ K Bowling Club (Somerset)**

*There was also a department cohesion at Somerset. We gathered at K Bowling Club for an evening of bowling, darts, and good food and beer!*

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**Moment 4: Movie Cohesion @ Golden Village**

*At Golden Village, we watched the latest Mission Impossible installment, Dead Reckoning Part 1 (2023). Free popcorn and soft drinks were provided, and I must say - I was thoroughly impressed by the action and stunts in the film. I cheered and gasped as I watched Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team take on the bad guys, and in my opinion, this was a pretty solid film to watch and probably one of the best Mission Impossible movies. I look forward to seeing Dead Reckoning Part 2 when it comes out in the future!*

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**Moment 5: Visit to National Art Gallery**

*One thing that always seems to help me relax and de-stress: looking at art. So, on a recent weekend, I decided to visit the National Art Gallery to take in some of the beautiful works of art on display.*

*I spent several hours wandering through the gallery, admiring the paintings, sculptures, and other artworks. I was particularly drawn to the intricate details of many of the pieces (as shown in the subsequent photos below), and I found myself getting lost in the beauty of the artworks drawn by the myriad of talented artists.*

*The sense of peace and tranquility that I felt while at the gallery was deeply appreciated. It was a welcome respite from the hustle & bustle of everyday life. I even found myself getting inspired by some of the artworks, which gave me some ideas for my own artworks in the future.*

*Overall, my visit to the National Art Gallery was a wonderful experience. It was a great way to relax & de-stress, and it also gave me a much-needed boost of inspiration. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for a way to connect with art and beauty. On top of that, it's free to enter for Singaporeans and PRs* 😀

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**Summary:**

*July and August were great months. I've had many good moments, both big and small. These amazing experiences are ones that I will never forget. With just a few months left in 2023, I am excited to see what adventures await me!*

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*As the wise Yukihira Soma once said - "...repeating trial and error and failing many times...it's that process which makes the dishes shine".*


A Summer to Remember: My Top 5 Moments from July and August 📅 

Today, I attended my **first** in-person tech conference in Singapore @ Marina Bay Sands Expo Level 5.

It was refreshing to see so many technologists together learning about the latest trends in cloud computing from AWS.

The keynote opening address was pretty enlightening. Learning about how AWS decided to create a new network protocol (AWS Scalable Reliable Datagram Protocol) because of its better performance and higher throughput compared to the conventional TCP network protocol, hearing about Grab developed their own in-house solution -  i.e. GrabMaps which also utilizes AWS, and seeing the amazing potential of Cloud Computing in general, made me understand why many corporations have migrated (or at least are in the midst of migration) from on-prem data centers to the cloud.

I've also had the privilege to network & speak to an AWS staff to learn more about ServerlessPresso (the open source app that is used by the coffee booths to serve us delicious coffee & latte at the AWS Summit).

Essentially its an app that has a minimalistic UI design, and is powered by serverless AWS Lamda and AWS Step functions. The AWS staff shared the actual architectural diagram of the entire full stack app, and it was very interesting to see how the different components of the system, both the frontend and backend, interacted with each other using various AWS cloud computing resources and technologies.

For those interested in that particular app, you can go to this link for more information: [AWS ServerlessPresso](https://github.com/aws-samples/serverless-coffee).

As I walked around to explore the various booths, I observed that there were many SaaS and PaaS companies at the Summit. They were essentially educating the crowd of technologists about the various solutions that their companies are trying to provide. Many of these companies are data-driven, and utilizes data to deliver new business insights and solutions for the world. 

There were also many free swag and free food at the Summit. I had a pretty delicious bowl of ravioli, and drank a nice warm cup of latte as well. 

The good thing about this Summit was that it provided participants with a multitude of AWS related workshops to upskill your cloud computing knowledge/skills. The workshop that really interested me was the AWS DeepRacer workshop  hence I went for that one.

The AWS DeepRacer workshop provided a high level overview of Reinforcement Learning, and taught us the very basics of deploying your first Machine Learning model on AWS. In order to fine tune your ML model (in the form of an AWS virtual car agent), we would essentially have to explore the documentation, and read up more on how to optimize your reward function, optimize your action space, finetune your hyper-parameters, and many more. Participants of the workshop also got a $30 AWS voucher as well ;)

Overall I had a pretty good time at this AWS Summit 😃! Seeing the sea of technologists which came from various companies - ranging from FAANG companies, to financial institutions and MNCs,  to SME/startups, amalgated together to learn the latest cloud computing trends was pretty heartwarming 😊. 

Hope to be able to attend my next tech conference very soon!

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AWS Summit ASEAN 2023 🌎

Just like that - **2 years** (4 semesters) in SP went by so quickly...

I can summarize my second year at SP into 1 phrase - **"A journey of growth"**. I got to learn more advanced web frameworks (both frontend and backend), and understood more deeply the design principles & mechanics behind those frameworks. I also got to learn cloud computing, mainly focusing on AWS.

**Juggling a full-time job and part-time studies was not easy**, but the journey was made easier with the support of like-minded peers. I'm glad to have met & interacted with some of you guys 😊. Our class this year comprises a diverse group of individuals from a variety of industries, with most of us having prior programming experience. It was heart-warming to see my classmates helping one another, especially with regard to clarification of concepts taught in class.

**Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end**. As I approach the end of my second year at SP, there's a sense of loose ends being tied up - a finality that stands in marked contrast to that of my first year. 

In my first year at SP, we were taught programming fundamentals. In comparison to that, in my second year at SP, we deep-dived into popular frontend libraries, backend frameworks, and cloud computing - while also understanding some of the underlying CS theory & mechanics behind them. I really **learned & grew a lot** in my second year at SP. From the bottom of my heart, I would like to **thank all the lecturers** in my second year at SP who helped solidify my understanding of those technologies, clarified the questions I had in class, and most importantly provided useful tips & guidance to my journey as a software engineer.

As I handed over my exam script for tonight's exam, there was this **bittersweet** feeling that lingered in my heart. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe it's because my heart is struggling to accept how fast time flew by in my second year...

**What will my learning journey look like for my future years as a software engineer?** Only time will tell...

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*On my way to the examination room*

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*Walking past the iconic SingTel Tetris Tower*

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*SP School of Computing - our lessons this year were at T2143*

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*Finished BDD exam - part 1*

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*Finished BDD exam - part 2*

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*Finished BDD exam - part 3*

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*Random photo 1*

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*Random photo 2*

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*Random photo 3*

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*Leaving SP and heading back home* 😔

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*SP Banner*

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*Proud to be from Singapore's first polytechnic - See you soon :)*


SP 2022-2023 📖 📚

***Summary of NUS Hack&Roll 2023:***

I had the privilege of attending my first physical hackathon - NUS Hack&Roll 2023 last Saturday. NUS Hack&Roll hackathon receives an overwhelmingly amount of applications every year (demand > supply), hence the organizing committee has to review applications and do some filtering to select applicants. I was pretty stoked when I received the acceptance email from them :). 

The first day of the hackathon I was mainly involved in attending the various engagement sessions by the various tech companies (who sponsored the event). Essentially the hackathon felt like a mini-recruitment event for all the uni/poly students present at the hackathon. In total this year, there were a total of 580 participants at the event, so I guess there would be alot of talents for the companies to scout for. Each tech company/sponsor also was given their own booth - which had various swag that participants can take. I also interacted with various participants of the hackathon, and also got the chance to speak to some interesting representatives/software engineers at their respective booths, and learnt more about their company's culture & tech stack etc.

Besides the engagement sessions, I was also trying to think of various suitable ideas as my hackathon project. As I was a one man team, and didn't have much hackathon experience, I wanted to keep the scope small (and demo a workable product at least). 24 hours might seem like a long time, but time flies by extremely fast at a hackathon, especially due to endless amounts of time spent on debugging your code on the computer. 

Nonetheless, eventually inspiration struck at 12am where I finally decided to create a desktop cat companion which also acted as a eye-straining prevention tool called PyCat.exe. When the program is executed, it basically generates a desktop pet at the bottom of the screen, and "reminds" you to stop staring at your screen every 20minutes & look at somewhere far instead for 20 seconds (thus preventing eye strain problems). For more details, you can refer to the GitHub link and DevPost link below.

The entire process from ideation, development, to debugging & testing all took around 8 hours. From 12am - 8am, I basically coded, fixed many bugs, checked documentation on why things didn't work. It was tiring as I wanted to sleep, but I couldn't do so or else I wouldn't have a workable demo by the judge presentation in the afternoon. Thankfully, managed to resolve the issues at hand, and had a successful and good demo to my judge 😀 at the end of the day.

I learnt many things during this hackathon. The main takeaway from this experience was to remain persistent and persevere till the end :)

Overall, a very good and fun experience! Hopefully, would be able to attend again (next time with friends who are interested to hack things up in a 24 hour hackathon)

***Photos on 14th Jan 2023:***
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***Photos on 15th Jan 2023:***
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***Links to my hackathon project (PyCat.exe):***

[GitHub](https://github.com/melvincwng/pycat.exe)

[DevPost](https://devpost.com/software/pycat-exe)




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