Mentoring at Hackathons — Nick Walsh
Nick Walsh currently works to empower student developers as a technical evangelist for Wolfram and a hackathon coach for Major League Hacking. He also writes technical content for MongoDB. Outside of tech, you can find him jamming to B.B. King or pretending to be a pro gamer.
How many hackathons have you mentored at?
I’ve mentored at around 20 hackathons by now, all across North America!
Any favorite anecdotes about mentoring?
At UofTHacks 2016, I gave an impromptu workshop on analyzing EEG brainwave data because there were multiple groups that were all interested in using that piece of hardware. It was completely unplanned, and it was the first hackathon I’d ever mentored at, but it went great and the teams were all extremely appreciative of it.
At HackTech 2016, I helped a team go from ideation to finished app over the course of the weekend — seeing their progression was awesome. They ended up building a posture detection app using Microsoft Kinect and Wolfram’s Mathematica.
From a broader perspective, I would say that almost all people mentoring at hackathons are there because they love it, and I can’t count on my fingers the number of times I’ve seen company mentors there helping hackers into the middle of the night to get their problems solved.
You probably participated in a lot of hackathons before mentoring for the first time. How did you decide to make that jump to mentoring?
I crossed over to the other side of the table from hacker to mentor because I truly felt an urge to give back to the community that had given me so much. Hackathons helped me to realize that what I loved about my work was specifically the programming, and not the subject area I was working in at the time. I was brought on as a hackathon coach/mentor by Major League Hacking and an evangelist for Wolfram Research, and have been mentoring at hackathons ever since.
Favorite part of mentoring?
Helping people achieve those “Aha!” moments. Whether it’s something simple like a syntax error or explaining a difficult concept in a more digestible fashion, helping people solve the problems that they’re passionate about will never lose its’ excitement.
How would you best respond to a student that wants to mentor but fears the lack experience?
I think dispelling the misconception that mentors have to ‘know everything’ goes a long way in curbing the imposter syndrome that many people wishing to mentor feel. In fact, I’d argue that it’s far more important to be able to think on your feet. Lots of code problems I’ve helped with at events have been in languages I’ve never used before, but by being able to use your computer science knowledge to ask questions, sometimes even that is enough to help a hacker through their problem. There are countless times where, even if the question is from one of my areas of expertise, the student and mentor will both be researching and solving the problem together. Sometimes a fresh set of eyes is all it takes.
What makes someone a great mentor?
I think being malleable is critical — every problem, mentee, and scenario require a different style of teaching to make the most out of the experience. For example, there are times where simply helping them to get past a small bug is all they need, but there are others times when they will want to know why, in depth, the code was acting the way it did.
What’s your strategy for tackling a hard problem when you’re mentoring?
I always like to start by asking questions, because I think this both helps the student question their own assumptions as well help me get an idea of what I’m working with. The process of breaking down every piece of the relevant code and assumptions is what allows us to narrow down the scope of the problem to something more manageable, often into a problem that has already been solved on stackoverflow.
What was your favorite hackathon and why?
My favorite hackathon was actually one that I attended as a hacker — BitCamp 2015 at the University of Maryland. The venue was epic, a giant indoor sports complex with tables lined up as far as the eye could see. Everything that was happening at the event took place on the main floor of the arena, so it was easy to take a break to do a mini-event without travelling too far. All of the mentors were also located around the perimeter of the floor, so they were extremely accessible for the duration of the event. I’m a little partial to the “lots of people in one giant room” style for hackathons as a hacker — I think the energy this layout produces at events is an experience unlike any other.
Find out more about Nick —
Twitter: @TheNickWalsh // Personal Site: www.nwalsh.io
Apply to mentor at AthenaHacks — http://athenahacks.com
Note — anyone is welcome to mentor, no matter what gender you identify as. We want everyone to be a part of this initiative!
