Echoes interviewed Team Trinity- Kritika Ahuja, Shiva Thavani and Saksham Gupta, who are currently pursuing Computer Engineering and MBA and are presently in their pre final year. They are among the brightest minds in college. Securing the first position in the EY GDS Hackathon and the 1st place in Smart India Hackathon. They continue to showcase grit and determination, the most vital keys to success.

Q- How did you all think of teaming up and from when you started taking part in hackathons?

A-Kritika: We are all batchmates and that’s how we started.
Saksham: We are batchmates as well as friends and thus decided to take part in different hackathons. The success that our team received along with our friendship became a driving force to stick together for further events as well.
Shiva: We started taking part in the hackathons in our third year, which shows that there is never an ‘early start’ or a ‘right time’ to do anything: just having the right mind set will take you far.

Q- It's never an easy ride in any event. So what were some of the challenges that you faced during the event and some of the learnings that you acquired?

Saksham: At first, we participated in a number of intra-college and inter-college hackathons without any success. We evolved ourselves gradually with the help of different hackathons websites such as Hackazard and Dare to compete. It enabled us to grow and become more technically sound. As a team, mutual bonding is the core necessity for achieving the goal.
Kritika: The main difficulty we all faced was deciding everyone’s skill set which is very important to efficiently distribute the work and to choose the technology on which we three can work effectively.
Shiva: Many of the hackathons from the previous year have been virtually held and it was a new experience for all of us which had challenges of its own but we all pulled through it.
Q- As all of you have been part of internships, how is the experience of doing internships helpful?

A- Shiva: Internships are of help. The first and major advantage is that we were getting paid. Apart from that, you learn things which you don’t usually get the opportunity to do in college: because if you want to develop practical skills you need to work on real-life projects and what better way of doing it than internships.
Kritika: Also, you learn a lot about corporate life, how to handle clients, how to manage the workload and a bunch of other things too.
Saksham: Summer internships are from college but some internships are also availed through hackathons. Like if you perform well, the companies might give you a chance for internships. It is one of the hidden benefits of hackathons.
Q- Does taking up internships and participating in events create a load in your lives?

A- Shiva: You can enjoy parallelly it’s never all work and no play. We have our fair share of memorable experiences so we enjoyed as well as worked. As I stated before, we started participating in the third year so we had already enjoyed our college life and like everyone else, we too started focusing more on our future.
Saksham: Plus, we also never felt like there was a load on us. As a software developer, you always want to build and develop things, so there is no better way to do this than internships.
Kritika: Developing things under 48 hrs 72 hrs is always thrilling and a fun filled experience- it gives a sense of working under tight deadlines.
Q- How has the past year helped you evolve? And has it been a hurdle in terms of the events you were taking part in?

A- Saksham: I think that was a boon for us. We majorly excelled in all the hackathons held virtually.
Kritika: In a virtual phase we can always devote more time, thus it helps increase our productivity.
Shiva: Getting the hardware side of some projects has been tough. For e.g., during the SIH event, we needed a battery for our autonomous tank- so while we were in college in December, we couldn’t buy the battery given the restriction. However, luckily Kritika had a friend in Patiala who helped us arrange the parts. So yes, we did manage to work despite COVID, with not much difficulty.
Q-Being from the MBA course How important is it to have experience in management and business with a technical background?

A- Shiva: It is very beneficial because you need managerial skills along with technical ones- in the end you need to manage the project that you are working on. It helps in presenting and showcasing the solutions to the problems given to you.
Saksham: Coming from a technical background helps in MBA. As in the current curriculum, we are coming across different subjects that we have already covered in our CS background.
Kritika: Plus looking at the current scenario it has become an industrial requirement as everyone eventually goes for an MBA.
Q- What are some of your future ambitions? What are some things that you wanted to do but couldn't due to time and other such factors?

A- Saksham: I want to see myself as a Chief Technical Officer in a big company. Talking about regrets- I don’t feel I have any, life has been so far so good.
Shiva: About my future, I want to become a Data Scientist as I am majorly interested in that field. About regrets, I also feel that we did all that we could, so there aren’t many regrets.
Kritika: For me, I want to stick to a technical job and not enter the field of management. There are no regrets as such also. The past year has been a fruitful one for all three of us.

Q- According to you, what makes hackathons important for students? What are some of the important things to consider before participating in a hackathon?

Shiva: It helps you build your CV. Hackathons provide you with a project and you can also mention them in your achievements. Secondly, you learn things, socialize and overall develop yourself.
Saksham: Many people think hackathons are for computer science students but it involves various skills. Like the SIH involved the concepts of Arduino and electronics so even different branch students can and should take part in hackathons.
Kritika: It’s always an enriching experience and it often involves hardware components along with the usual coding.