When to Use AI in Hackathons: Insights from MLH Winners Cindy Cui & Alison Co

Braillearn: A Hackathon Triumph for Accessibility

• 💡 Braillearn is a hackathon project by Cindy Cui and Alison Co designed to help individuals losing their vision learn Braille.
• 🎯 The project addresses the low rate of Braille literacy (10%) and its impact on employment for the visually impaired, where 90% of employed blind individuals read Braille.
• 🚀 The core of Braillearn is a 3D-printed device with servo motors that raise pins to form Braille characters, controlled via a web interface.

Hackathon Development: From Concept to Prototype

• 🛠️ The team faced immediate hardware challenges, ordering servo motors the same day the hackathon began due to limited availability.
• 🧠 Initial software development focused on speech-to-text and text-to-speech using the Web Speech API, aiming for an intuitive user experience.
• ⚙️ For character interpretation, they initially used Cohere's LLM but found it too slow, opting for a custom speech grammar for better performance.
• 🚧 The hardware build involved improvising with dollar store items like gift boxes and sewing pins, requiring creative solutions for precise pin movement and staggering.

The Hackathon Experience and Beyond

• 🏆 The Braillearn team won their hackathon and were invited to present at GitHub Universe, meeting Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
• 🎤 Despite a tight deadline, they focused on a strong pitch, emphasizing the problem's importance and the tangible nature of their solution.
• ✈️ Post-hackathon, they refined the hardware and website, presented at Telus, and consulted with UBC professors specializing in Braille education.

AI in Education and the Workforce

• 🎓 University courses are now including AI usage guidelines in syllabi, with strict limitations in arts courses but evolving approaches in computer science.
• 💻 Students, especially in STEM, are increasingly using AI tools for brainstorming, market research, and coding assistance, though academic integrity concerns remain.
• 🚀 In the workforce, companies like Shopify encourage an "AI-first" approach to leverage AI's benefits and understand its limitations by pushing its boundaries.
• ⚠️ A key concern is that over-reliance on AI could diminish critical thinking and problem-solving resilience, akin to how calculators impacted mental math skills.

Career Advice and Future Plans

• 🌟 Both Cindy and Alison emphasize that focusing solely on grades is less important than hands-on projects, hackathons, and developing soft skills like communication and teamwork.
• 🤝 Employers value candidates who demonstrate commitment to the tech space beyond just LeetCode problems, highlighting involvement in clubs, extracurriculars, and collaborative projects.
• 🗺️ For Braillearn's future, the team recognizes the challenges of mass-producing hardware and is exploring a software-only route compatible with existing Braille displays, prioritizing user needs from the visually impaired community.