After several conversations with BPP's CPTO, Jo Wickremasinghe, 5 months of planning and going back and forth with Rick Lippiett and Murray Brown to organise, we had 6 Future CodeHers students join BPP for their summer Hackathon on #GenerativeAI last week.
This was a first hackathon for us, and the anticipation of how it would turn out was real. I can gladly say that this is one of the best experiences we’ve had and biggest insights into Tech and Product. This is why:
⭐️Product & Technology (P&T) at BPP were split into 6 Teams; a combination of Product Managers, Designers, Engineers, QA, Data. One Future CodeHers student joined each team and they were given a problem statement.
⭐️ Day 1 involved problem framing; this was a super organised process using Miro where we participated in various lightening talks, journey mapping, and how might we’s, to analyse the problem statement with our team. We looked at the problem, how it impacts users and why, current processes in place, business impact and benefit, areas of prioritisation. Shout out to the facilitator's on the day!
⭐️ On Day 2 we hacked. Each team identified a solution and built it. Product teams designed the prototype focusing on the look, feel and layout whilst Software and Prompt Engineers built a demo in just 12 hours.
⭐️ Day 3 - Each team presented back their solutions and demos, and the winning team was announced in Judges Review. I was in Team F along with Maira Dawood, we were only two points behind the winning team 👏.
Myself, Diya Menon, Victoria Aladesuru, Maira Dawood Elizabeth Ifede Sophia Libych Yimika Paul-Taiwo experienced the following:
🙌🏼 Saw Tech and Product roles 'live in action'
🙌🏼 The full Tech process from problem to solution whilst thinking about the business impact/benefits along the way.
🙌🏼 We had the opportunity to use Miro boards, Figma and Slack
🙌🏼 Delve into Gen AI and see how Prompt Engineering works
🙌🏼 and most important of all, witness cross-functional collaboration and communication. Seeing all the teams work together and bring their expertise and ideas to drive innovation was inspiring.
From myself, Future CodeHers and Oliver Bernard, thank you to everyone at BPP for being so welcoming and going out of your way to make this a valuable experience for the students. It has helped provide clarity on areas of tech they enjoy and don't!
A special thank you to Rick Lippiett, Murray Brown, Jo Wickremasinghe.
And a personal thank you to Team F for the laughs, snacks, good times and great ideas- Maira Dawood Rachel Arthur, Murray Brown, Joe Harris, Janak Trivedi, Florence English, Robert O., Marie Boulanger, Dylan, Yinka and Heather and Victoria Aladesuru.