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We placed 2nd at a university hackathon while still in junior college
Bits and Bolts 2019: a JC team (Himanshu, Ojas, Vasanth) walked into a university-level hackathon as underdogs — and took 2nd place. Proof that the bracket doesn't decide who ships.
We placed 2nd at a university hackathon while still in junior college
Somewhere in 2019, still in junior college at Jurong Pioneer JC, my team — Himanshu Sharma, Ojas Surana, and me — entered Bits and Bolts, a university-level hackathon. We were the young table in a room of people with a few more years of everything.
We didn't win the whole thing. We placed 2nd. The school posted the moment: Bits and Bolts 2019 — 2nd Position.
Why I keep this one
Not because a 2nd place ribbon is the peak of my career. Because of what it proved:
- Underdogs can win. Nobody expected a JC team to be on that podium. We showed up anyway.
- Young doesn't mean unready. We were outnumbered by experience but not outbuilt.
- It was a team effort. Himanshu and Ojas carried as much weight as I did — the video lists all three of us for a reason.
That pattern — walk into a room where you're not supposed to be, build anyway, leave with something real — is the same one I've been running ever since: TeachX, BugBoom, Noverse, Lintlabs. The bracket tells you where you start, not where you finish.