My experience in GeekOut 2023

Published on: 7/2/2023

Introduction

I was given the opportunity to join the yearly GeekOut bootcamp/hackathon event organised by GovTech during my June holidays. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the event and was initially nervous, but I had a truly eye-opening and fulfilling experience there and I learnt a lot about the recent innovations in GovTech that are helping Singapore become a smart nation. Not only that, but I also made many friends and gained valuable insights into different tech fields such as fullstack, cybersec, data science and Unity through the workshops and talks at GeekOut over the course of five days.

Meeting new people

On the first day of the bootcamp, I was introduced to my group members and our mentor Jasmine. Through the ice-breaker games, we warmed up to each other more and got to know more about everyone. In fact, it was kind of cool how each of us had their own background and strengths; some of us didn’t have any coding background at all! Having a diverse range of strengths, not just limited to technical skills, was really helpful in balancing the team.

During lunch, I walked around the room and introduced myself to other participants and GovTech employees. It was immediately obvious to me that almost all of them were older than me which was a little intimidating. However, talking to them and getting to know more about them eased my anxiety and helped me get to know them better. By the end of the first day, I’d loosened up a little and had warmed up to everyone around me.

Workshops

The workshops and talks that GovTech organised for us to go through throughout the course of the bootcamp were all really interesting and let me dip my toes in many fields in the tech industry. We got the chance to learn how Unity is used to create apps for digital twin technology in Singapore, how Figma, React, and Node can be used to create full stack applications, and how Google Colab could be used to run ML models online.

One aspect of tech that I’ve never really touched before was Cybersec. Through the talk by Jervin and Pengfei, I got to learn more about how red, blue, and purple teaming worked. I also learnt about how a Kubernetes master node could potentially be hacked, and how app obfuscation can be used both defensively (effectively balancing speed/size while maintaining as much security as possible) and offensively (crashing decompilers of those who try to reverse engineer how an app works).

Of course, every workshop was eye opening and I gained many new insights from this, even from stuff that I’ve learnt before on my own.

Hackathon

On the 4th day of the bootcamp, we were briefed about our hackathon problem statement and tasked to develop a solution to tackle it:

Develop a smart city solution to improve quality of life for citizens while also enhancing the sustainability of the goal to move towards a smarter nation.

What the guidelines of the hackathon were essentially:

Although technical execution was also taken into account, I feel that the hackathon mainly sought good ideas that addressed the problem, demonstrated a solid understanding of it, and effectively used technology to provide a solution.

The thing about being in a government-organised hackathon is that there would usually be more policies involved instead of building whatever cool shit you come up with. What really stuck out to me throughout this process was

We tried to follow as closely as possible to the theme of building something nation-wide for citizens that is also a smart city solution, and spent the afternoon of the first day throwing out ideas and seeing what stuck. We had a few false starts, such as Sustainability365 and a navigation app for the blind.

In the end, we came up with an idea of a centralised lecture platform / learning management system for JC students. If you’ve heard about Holy Grail before, imagine that but for lectures. If you haven’t, it’s essentially a learning platform containing A-Level video lectures compiled and created by a group of teachers that are selected from every JC by MOE to do so every time the syllabus is updated.

Suffering at night

So we’ve come up with an idea. Now comes the time for us to create it; bring it to life. Since we only needed a slide deck (technically), we opted to not create the entire app because 1. only half the team knew how to code and 2. it would be much slower. Instead, we delegated tasks to each person based on their strengths.

One of the most valuable aspects of the GeekOut Bootcamp was the chance to engage directly with GovTech’s senior leaders during the fireside chat where they shared about how GovTech has used tech for public good. These sessions gave me a deeper understanding of the diverse tech domains within GovTech, such as cybersecurity, data science and artificial intelligence, and how they come together to address pressing societal challenges.

AMA

After the hackathon, we were given the chance to talk directly with some of GovTech’s employees through the Ask Me Anything (AMA) session, where we got to know more about the different tech domains in GovTech and how they’re used together to address nation-wide issues and build tech for public good (i feel like that’s their catchphrase). One thing that I was curious about was how working in the public sector was different from working in private sector. (eg. was there a LOT of bureaucracy involved? how is the pay like? (i know very subtle)).

All in all, I feel like I gained a lot more info about what working in the government was like, and how different government sectors had different styles of working.

Winning?!

After the AMA session had concluded, it was obviously time for the part everyone was waiting for the most: the announcements for who won.

TO MY ABSOLUTE SURPRISE, WE ENDED UP GETTING THIRD!!!

The main reason I felt was that despite being pretty technically lacklustre, we drilled deep into the reasons, stakeholders, and policies behind our product and why we thought it was a sound idea to be used for education across Singapore.

Takeaways

(30/9/24) GovTech isn’t really a typical example of a “government” company; as opposed to being slow, bulky and full of red tape as one may imagine, attending this bootcamp has really proved me wrong. The various workshops and opportunities to talk to employees has allowed me to learn what really makes GovTech tick. From seeing their thought processes and their approaches to nation-wide issues, there was a certain attention to detail and policy that typical tech companies don’t really have.

This was really emphasised during the 1 day hackathon, which I’d argue was moreso of a policy-a-thon and encouraged us to think about how a product at a national scale would have an impact on most Singaporeans from all walks of life. When seeking feedback for our project idea, one quote really stuck with me - the technical part of a solution is never the hardest. And that shows in the products GovTech chooses to work on and release for the public good.

GeekOut has really left quite a deep impression on me that I’ve actually decided to try applying for internships (and got rejected, but that’s a learning experience for another time!). The people were all fantastic, the food delicious, and the experience as a whole something I’ll never forget.