How does a rural student end up organising a Hackathon event overseas that saw 61 participants from three countries; a panel of judges consisting of members from Google, Lynxemi, Indigo Labs and Curtin academics and a team of mentors from Syan Consulting, Carousell, VGW, AECOM, HealthEngine and Curtin?
By getting out of her comfort zone and signing up to join a club at Curtin!
Warittha Rayabsri, is a third-year computer science major who over her degree has become the President of Curtin’s Computer Science Students Association (ComSSA). Originally from Thailand, Warittha moved to Australia in 2010 and was raised in Dongara – a tiny outback town 3.5 hours north of Perth. She recently pulled off quite a feat, pitching an idea to run an international hackathon in Curtin Singapore, with a delegation from ComSSA, to promote newly introduced computing degrees at their campus and then helping to organise and run the conference.
The Singapore Hackathon was a 2-day event that helped develop participants’ skills to discover the right technologies to solve an exciting fictional challenge and share their solutions with the tech community. The event attracted participants from various high schools, junior colleges, and polytechnics, forming 12 teams who attended the event physically and virtually from Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
So how did Warittha do this around her studies and her role as president of the ComSSA?
“Labor omnia vincit” she quotes! (Latin for work conquers all) “Anything can be achieved if proper work is applied.’’
What have you gained by being involved?
“This event was ComSSA’s first ever international collaboration and my first time running a Hackathon. After two months of late-night meetings and many hours of planning, this collaboration has built many new friendships and has inspired many. Much of it still seems surreal – from flying all the way to Singapore and working alongside staff and students at the Curtin Singapore campus. Suffice it to say, it was a life-changing experience.’’
If you had the opportunity to give every student at Curtin a message about getting involved in extracurricular activities, what would you say?
“In my first year at University, I was not very involved with any club activities especially when COVID first came around. I never had the confidence to imagine myself being on a committee of any club. One day out of curiosity, I came across a ComSSA committee application on Discord. I thought to myself ‘there’s no way I can make it, but we’ll see what happens’, so I decided to apply anyway. Little did I know that this decision would bring me a myriad of friendships, memories and valuable experience that will last me my entire university life.
My experience as ComSSA president so far has definitely helped me immensely in my interviews with industry professionals and job recruiters. A lot of challenges I faced as ComSSA president have taught me how to lead a big group of people, how to organise huge events like the Hackathon, and applying problem solving skills to real-world context. A lot of questions I have been asked in my interviews so far have been behavioural focused, where you would often get asked what sort of challenges you faced and how did you tackle those challenges.’’
Amazing job representing Curtin ComSSA, credit to all involved in the Singapore Hackathon!
If Warittha experience has inspired you to get involved sign up to get involved with ComSSA or check out Curtin’s club and societies webpage to get engaged with a club that suits you and explore the opportunities available.
