Day 5

OJ Watson

2025-01-24

Welcome to Day 5

• Challenge Presentation Day
• Structure for the presentations:
  • 15 minutes for presentation
  • 5 minutes for question
• We will break for tea and coffee half way
• After the presentations we will conclude with a set of thanks and reflections on the hackathon.

Presentation Slot

Hackathon Feeback Sentiment Analysis

1. What aspects made the hackathon effective?

• Key Themes:
  • Team Diversity: Cross-disciplinary groups brought different perspectives and skillsets.
  • Clear Goals: Having structured daily goals and well-defined problem statements was valued.
  • Interactive Environment: Activities like icebreakers, debriefs and engaging decision-makers fostered collaboration.
• Supporting Quotes:
  • “Being paired up with people of different backgrounds and skills was useful for cohesion of the team.” — Fred Nyamitago Monari
  • “The challenges were clearly defined, making it easy to hit the ground running.” — Pete Winskill
  • “Regular breaks, ice breaking, collaboration, Hacking itself and Debriefing.” — Tabitha Okech

2. What aspects of the hackathon could have been improved?

• Key Themes:
  • More Time: Many participants wanted extended durations for deeper work.
  • Pre-event Preparation: Better onboarding and earlier dissemination of problem statements.
  • Environment: Preferences for better-lit and outdoor spaces for breaks.
• Supporting Quotes:
  • “Hopefully, the real work could start sooner, by day 1 or 2 latest to allow more time to build the models and achieve quality work.” — Fred Nyamitago Monari
  • “We should increase the time of the hackathon to 2 weeks to allow effective deliverables.” — Lilith Whittles
  • “The venue was good, but a room with daylight would be extremely beneficial to the state of the participants.” — Anonymous

3. What aspects helped teams to collaborate effectively?

• Key Themes:
  • Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Teams with diverse roles (developers, policymakers, facilitators) functioned effectively.
  • Icebreakers and Social Activities: Jenga and informal group activities eased communication barriers.
  • Decision-Maker Involvement: Having decision-makers within teams improved the relevance of outcomes.
• Supporting Quotes:
  • “The team organisation balance… a software engineer, data scientist, facilitators, and the decision maker in one table.” — Anonymous
  • “Having the decision-makers in the room was excellent. Icebreaking activities helped us make progress.” — Anonymous
  • “The family groups created with hackers, facilitators, and decision-makers captured the reality of the problems we were solving.” — John Ojal

4. What were the merits of the hackathon for participants?

• Key Themes:
  • Skill Development: Practical learning in coding, modelling, and collaboration.
  • Networking Opportunities: Building connections with professionals across fields.
  • Enjoyable Environment: Participants felt part of a family and enjoyed working in their families.
• Supporting Quotes:
  • “Learning Git and GitHub, coding aspects like commit, push, pull, and merge.” — Katy Gaythorpe
  • “Meeting, working, learning from, and teaching the team!” — Anonymous
  • The participants were well-motivated and great fun to work with—the Jenga and introductory sessions meant we had quite a relaxed atmosphere, and this really helped with generating ideas.” — Francis Motiri

5. What components were effective/could be improved for knowledge translation?

• Key Themes:
  • Focused Problem Statements: Clear and concise problems made the tools practical.
  • Longer Working Time: Extended durations were suggested for deeper exploration and refinement.
  • Pre-event Planning: Early provision of datasets and structured pre-hackathon planning were beneficial (but could have been even earlier!).
• Supporting Quotes:
  • “Focused problem statements streamline efforts and lead to more impactful outcomes.” — Anonymous
  • “In the future, it could be helpful to have more time for testing and refining the final solutions. This will allow the participants to see the project through to a higher level of innovation.” — John Ojal
  • “Plan and work pre-hackathon to help with working plans and structure.” — Peter Waweru Mugo
  • “Receiving datasets ahead of time might have helped a little.” — Anonymous

Hackathon Milestones Reached:

• Total number of Github Commits across groups:
  • 542 Commits 🎇
• Total individuals who committed code:
  • 36 Individuals 💑
• Total number of biscuits consumed:
  • 196 Biscuits (at least…) 🍪