Globalhack VII was, as expected, an exciting way to spend a weekend! The good people at 1904labs helped make it even better. Open-mindedness, creativity, strong work ethics, and cooperation all made our team a genuine pleasure to work with. We pushed past the limits of what we thought we could accomplish, and built an app that has the potential to serve as an amazing resource to foreign-born individuals who end up in our city.
LadderUs, as we call it, helps immigrants set goals, recognize the steps required to achieve those goals, and request help when they get stuck. We also included on-the-fly translation through a micro-service that hits Google's translate api, and another micro-service that vets the quality of the translation, suggesting that the user clarify the wording if the text does not appear to translate well.
While we did not officially take home a win, we all still felt like winners for what we learned over the course of the hackathon. It was exhausting, and at times discussions became heated, yet everyone on our team enjoyed the experience and learned a great deal. I am looking forward to my next hackathon, and to putting the things I learned to use in my personal projects during innovation-hours and beyond!
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