SpurHacks 2025
Spurhacks 2025 was held in Kitchener Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It was an amazing experience where I got to meet many talented individuals and work on exciting projects. I participated this hackathon with my friend Arslane whom I have had the pleasure to work with during Cégep along with two of his.
You can find more about the hackathon on their website. In brief and cited from their website:
Join over 2,000 students from across Canada at SpurHacks; pushing the boundaries of what a hackathon can be. Discover a community of like-minded individuals, learn from industry experts, and build innovative projects that will shape the future of technology. Whether you're a seasoned hacker or a first-time participant, SpurHacks is the perfect place to unleash your creativity and make lasting connections.
SpurHacks is Spur's premiere hackathon, poised to be Canada's largest hackathon hosted at SPUR Campus - a venue with a rich history in Canadian history. This 3-day overnight event, running from June 20th to June 22nd, will welcome over 2,000 students from all across the Canadian tech sphere.
My Experience
When we arrived we were struggling to find an idea as to what to hack on. We had a few ideas but nothing that really stood out. After a few hours of brainstorming, we decided to implement a brain biometic security system that would leverarge different technologies, mainly AI and blockchain, to authenticate and identify a person based on their brainwaves. We had a PiEEG which is an 8 electrode EEG reader at hand.
I think it is important to mention that Spurhacks is a hackathon that is very focused on innovation more so than on the implementation of a project. This means that the judges are looking for ideas that are novel and have the potential to change the world. This is why we decided to go with a project that was more focused on the idea and pitching this idea rather than the implementation. Winning spurhacks didn't mean you had a working product, but it meant you now had Spur, a quantum computing company, as a partner to help you develop your idea further.
Friday rolls over and we had a good start, an idea and a plan. I tasked myself with setting up the blockchain which would hold the weights of the model that would identify the person based on their brainwaves. Arslane worked on the front-end and the design of the project. The other two members worked on the back-end and the integration of the PiEEG and the model itself.
I working with a brand new technology and also with a brand new concept (that being the blockchain). I had to learn a lot in a short amount of time. I had been working with ignite and I took all night trying to figure out how to set up the blockchain and how to integrate it with the rest of the project. I was able to get a basic setup working but I was not able to get the full integration done.
As for my teamates, when sunday rolled around, they had started to work on the pitch presentation for the judges to see.
Unformunately, something held us up and we were not even able to present our project to the judges and had to head back home to Montreal empty handed. Nonetheless, I had a great time at Spurhacks and I learned a lot. I met many talented individuals and I was able to work on a project that was very innovative and had the potential to change the world.
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