What is a Hackathon?
Hack a ton? Heck a ton? Hackathon.
An annual event whereby students are given a topic, and with assistance from the digital world they have to build the fastest solution possible within a set timeframe. In this case, three days!
A PFP squad from PF2331, composed of Dennise, Jian Wei, Alex, and Yan Jun, thought joining such a competition would be a learning experience, and “very fun”.
It was not “very fun”.
Time-Not-And-Against A Ton
Prior to being tossed into 72 hours of stress, our underdogs were tossed into a pre-workshop in order to familiarise and prepare themselves for what would be Hackathon 2023. The great Hackathon had thankfully occurred amidst the semester break, so sleepless nights, temporary sedentary lifestyles, and a well-rewarded treat after the competition could be afforded. What could not be afforded though, was time. Not a ton. Ideating, programming, framing, designing within 3 days (5th to 8th September) was no cakewalk.
Dennise and co. were the only PFP team. Their rivals – 19 different teams consisting of year 1 and 2 NYP students.
Enter A Ton
And so the competition begins.
Prompted with, “How might we leverage technology to promote healthy living?”, the group had set off to ideate. But how, though? There were already propositions that not only have been brought to the table, but executed. And it is a ton.
Getting fit? — Guess what. Six Pack in 30 Days already has that covered.
My intake? — Oops. MyFitnessPal did that all the way back in ‘05.
Getting rid of my one pack? — Uhm. Six Pack in 30 Days, also has that covered.
“An app that acts as a simultaneous fitness tracker, and a social media platform?” The match was struck by Jian Wei, and a blazing star of an idea was born.
Prepare A Ton
Technology can be leveraged to promote healthy living, as well as to promote the app progress. Before progress could even be made, however, the fundamentals of the app had to be ideated first. Setting out to research, Yan Jun had suggested several functions:
- Scrolling as if it was Instagram,
- A location function that lets you meet up with fellow pull day connoisseurs,
- An advertisement ability so that you can either scour for new gym bros, or propagate your belief that tricep dumbbell kickbacks are futile,
- A chatbot to let gym rats know that working abs is useless unless you change your diet,
- A tracking feature that not only keeps tabs on your cardio sessions, but your workouts too; So that you are bleakly reminded that leg day is rearing its hideous squat rack.
And quite a bit more.
With the ideas down, the way was paved for all the app building, stuff. Kudos to the people who had spent time to design softwares to, well, design softwares. Because of such a gracious act, members Dennise, and Alex were able to work in tandem to bring their idea to life. Jian Wei, was managing the team, and assisting here and there to alleviate stress. Yan Jun? Ideating core ideas of what would make the app attractive, but especially, innovative.
Equipped A Ton
Locked with determination, and definitely not loaded with a ton of time, the group persevered. Visual Studio Code, React, and PocketBase were some of the software used by the team.
But what are these mumble jumble thingamabobs?
- Visual Studio Code, well, codes,
- React acted as an app framework,
- PocketBase was a database,
- Canva was used. So much. For designing the visuals.
In order for texts and media to appear on the app online, contents of PocketBase were plucked, and used by React. Aside from proud imagery display, PocketBase acted as a storage facility for information once its request for data was legally accepted by the user.
Reinvigorate A Ton
Great adversity has its beauty, for it is the fire that tempers the blade. Throughout, they had to continuously improve, innovate, and work on the app functions.
Posting? Defined.
Achievements? Drafted.
Logo? Indubitably so.
Minutes turned into hours, and hours turned into days. One minute it was coding at 10 am, the next, leaving a Discord meeting at 10 pm. Praises a plenty from the underdogs went towards Dennise for coding most of the app and to Alex, Jian Wei, and Yan Jun for all the unique mastery that they brought to the mix.
Active A Ton
Time waits for no man, and 8th September soon arrived.
Following the stress-ridden days, what was once a mere idea was now living in the digital world.
Anywhere Fitness.
Anywhere Fitness aims to encourage people to adopt an active lifestyle.
Whether it is traps, quads, or cardio, Anywhere Fitness tracks your workouts. You can even brag about your strength, progress, or achievements on Anywhere Fitness’ chatbot, advertising, and community feature!
But watch out! Do not scroll too far! Anywhere Fitness would not want to see you demotivated after witnessing a 16 year old bench 225 when your max is 135.
Experience the app yourself at https://awf.vercel.app!
(Well, website due to time-constraint.)
After A Ton
And so, The great Hackathon of ‘23 came to an end.
The PFP team clinched third place.
The rewards? First place had gotten a keyboard, and second place was rewarded with a powerbank.
But who cares! Third place got a 32 gigabyte thumbdrive! Matter of fact, not even thumbdrive; Thumb, drives! One for each member! Though rewards are good, the satisfaction of having created something from scratch and being recognised for it will never be forgotten.
Austin Ho 
Hani Marsya