Hack-The-Sem was a semester-long initiative which was co-incubated and co-hosted by WICS (Women in Computer Science) and GDSC (Google Developer Student Club). The program spanned over 9 weeks in the Spring 2024 semester. The hackathon offered an immersive experience featuring workshops, mentorship opportunities, and collaborative projects. Each team was assigned a mentor to guide and support through the program, with the ultimate goal of finally presenting a functioning prototype on Demo Day.

The objectives of Hack-The-Sem were for students of all different faculties, majors and experience levels to build technical and teamwork skills in a safe and open environment. Hack-The-Sem was incubated and created to provide underrepresented groups with equal opportunities for collaboration and innovation in small cohort sizes.

The domains tackled by each team were carefully selected and comprised of Healthcare, Environment, Social Justice and Finance. To support the participants through the project development process, workshops on project management, web development, data science and cloud computing were offered alongside 4 mandatory check-ins to help provide a concrete timeline of each group’s progress.

With the goal of diversity and inclusivity at the forefront of Hack-The-Sem, participants said that they “enjoyed the semester-long format working on a project with like-minded hackathoners” and enjoyed the difficult yet rewarding process with their respective teams. Ultimately, Hack-The-Sem as an initiative hoped to help grow and support participants’ skills, innovative ideas and passion for creating change. 

Thank you for hacking with us this past semester and we hope each team’s intentionality to strive for great impact, innovation and implementation can be seen!

Project Descriptions:

PhysioAI | Healthcare - Nakul Bansal, Grace Chhabra, Nathan Huynh 

Mentor: Sai Krishna Manthena

PhysioAI is an AI-powered physical therapy assistant that utilizes computer vision and chatbot technology to provide affordable and accessible rehabilitation. By guiding users through exercises with proper form and offering personalized recommendations, PhysioAI helps people recover from injuries and improve their overall well-being.

GradGains | Finance - Maisha Supritee Chowdhury, Andy Jung, Atulya Malhan 

Mentor: Shadi Zoldjalali

GradGains is a financial social media platform catering to university students, offering easy-to-digest financial news and content to enhance financial literacy. It fosters community support by enabling peer-to-peer learning and motivation, allowing friends to invest together and achieve long-term financial goals while also facilitating the transfer of investment profits into various savings accounts directly within the web app.

EcoPath | Environment - Leonardo Mormontoy, Soumya Parmar, Sanchit Jain

Mentor: Shivanshu Bansal

EcoPath is your personal environmental companion designed to help you monitor and minimize your ecological footprint with ease. With a user-friendly interface and a suite of indispensable tools, EcoPath is a web app that empowers you to make informed decisions and take actionable steps toward a more sustainable lifestyle.

SFU PathPal | Social Justice - Bhavana Kaushik, Kyle Mollard. Jeslyn Richelle Pontoan, Emily Qin

Mentor: Kaitlynn Chan

SFU PathPal is a website aimed at increasing the accessibility of SFU, and streamlining the relevant services. Mainly, it includes an interactive map with wayfinding features, for convenient access to emergency phones, gender neutral/accessible washrooms and elevators. The website also links to the health and counselling services, current events, campus security, and SFU Twitter for real-time updates.