Teravision Hackathon 2020 | Our Last Experience

The Final Stretch

The finale is here! With this addition, we close our series of interviews with the winners of Teravision Technologies’ first-ever Hackathon event. Last time, we spoke with Bárbara Muñoz, a member of one of the winning teams of last year’s Hackathon, specifically within the UI category. If you would like to read this or any of the previous interviews we’ve made, you can check them out here.

This time around, we’ll be speaking with Julian Ramos, a member of the third winning team of the event, specifically in the categories of Quality and Value Proposition! Conducting the interview is Luis Olavarría, Sales and Marketing Coordinator for Teravision Technologies.

The Interview

Question

What was your first impression of the event after its unveiling? How did you feel about the Teravision Hackathon?

Julian Ramos

In regards to learning that the Hackathon was going to use Flutter as the technology, I thought it was very interesting since this tool is new, and I believe a few developers were already learning about it in private, so it was a great way to put into practice what I had learned, I would say.

Question

So you did like the fact that Flutter was going to be the prime technology of the event.

Julian Ramos

Yes, like I said, I thought it was very ideal considering that the technology is new and, even though it is not really a fully native language there are still a few uses for it as a native tool, especially considering that it was very new at the time.

Question

How was your experience with Flutter? Did you personally already have some experience with it?

Julian Ramos

Yes, we’ve been experimenting with it for over a year, so honestly, it was the main reason why I entered the event in the first place.

Question

Alright, so I imagine that the learning curve for the event was pretty much inexistent, correct?

Julian Ramos

Yes, my group, Victor, Ernesto, and I, had a separate group where we learn different kinds of technologies and languages for our own benefit, on top of that, we had a lot of projects on hand so there wasn’t any time for us to practice before the event, so the learning curve was based on the experience we already had from outside the Hackathon.

Question

So let’s talk about your team for a bit: how did you decide to build your team as it was?

Julian Ramos

We had a Zoom group called Flutter. There were many people part of the group, mainly from iOS development where we decided to learn a new language, and that language was Flutter.

Question

So basically, there were many people in that group, a few of you decided to participate in the first edition of the Teravision Hackathon, and that’s how the group was born, correct.

Julian Ramos

Exactly!

Question

So, after building that team, what product did you make? What does it do?

Julian Ramos

Basically, the product was made based on a need that we have in Bogotá, where we never really had knowledge of which developers had certain devices. In iOS, there were only a few of them, but we could never put a name on who had them, so based off of this, we decided to create a type of inventory where developers can log in with their corporate email address, and that way, we help the administrators with knowing what items they have in inventory, which ones are no longer in inventory, and who has said items. It even has a function that prints a PDF so that they can sign off an item and let it leave the building.

Question

Was that a product that the organizers proposed or did you make it from scratch?

Julian Ramos

There were specific tasks that the organizers had, I don’t really remember the exact descriptions, but the idea was pretty much from that list.

Question

Of course, 48 hours isn’t enough time to make a complete product, so how did your team envision the final version of the project?

Julian Ramos

Honestly, I think we were the team that presented the most stable and complete product out of all the groups, so I think we really completed the objective as we wanted. Another advantage that we had was that I’ve already worked with my other teammates, so there weren’t any missteps in terms of advancing with the code.

Question

So having worked together before, how did that dynamic work? Who slept, who didn’t?

Julian Ramos

Everyone worked very synchronized. We all worked until the same time, pretty much until 6 AM, so together we’ve only slept 2 hours. The rule was “Or we all work, or we all sleep!”

Question

How did your team interact with the client figures of the event? Did you get any benefits from this unique aspect of the Hackathon?

Julian Ramos

Honestly, that was something we didn’t really touch all that much. We pretty much asked a few questions to our client based on administration, but with all the work done, we didn’t have enough time to sit down and receive any feedback from them.

Question

Would you have liked to continue working on your project beyond the Hackathon?

Julian Ramos

Yes of course, I think that was even a central aspect of the event in itself, to continue working on the project after a preliminary base development.

Question

Awesome! So, would you like to participate in another Teravision Hackathon or any internal activities like this?

Julian Ramos

If we focus on the Hackathons probably not, because Hackathons are normally made up of 2 or more people and preferably ones you already have chemistry with, and right now Victor and Ernesto are no longer part of the company. A Hackathon is more than just participating, it’s also about the commitment, so it could bring more work than one would expect.

Question

And any other event that involves learning something new? Like study groups for instance?

Julian Ramos

Yes of course! We’re always open for things like those, in fact, Jorge, my new lead, and I are promoting this to some of the new staff entering the company.

The End of an Era

With this, the end of an era has come. As the Teravision Hackathon 2020 coverage comes to a close, we’ve learned a lot about how Teravision Technologies prepares their staff to be cutting edge and on top of the latest technologies in the market. This, because we believe in people and their talent to learn. We’re only getting started!