Learning to Build Again
The Curious Case at a Hackathon 🤖
Last weekend I did something I had not done in almost eight years.
Not just any hackathon, but the GenAI Genesis Hackathon in Toronto, a room full of brilliant students, developers, and AI enthusiasts building wild things with LLMs, voice interfaces, and agent frameworks 🤯
And then there was me.
A computational biology postdoc who usually spends his days with cancer genomes and single-cell data, and occasionally being a couch potato 😅, suddenly surrounded by:
undergrads and even school kids speaking fluent GenAI + GenZ language 🧠⚡
Let me tell you something honestly:
I felt old. 😅
The First Shock ⚡
The vibe was electric.
Teams were forming rapidly. People were pitching ideas like:
- AI agents 🤖
- voice-first assistants 🎙️
- autonomous workflow engines ⚙️
- things that sounded like startups already raising Series A 😄
Everyone seemed to know each other or just clicked instantly. Some already had teams. Most had a clear idea of what they wanted to build.
Meanwhile, my brain:
“Okay… what exactly was I thinking when I signed up for this?” 😶
For a moment:
Maybe I don’t belong here anymore.
But then something interesting happened.
Curiosity won over insecurity.
And I stayed.
P.S. I finally saw the Computer Science department at University of Toronto and I was like 😍 ❤️ Never imagined life would bring me here one day 🙈
When You Can’t Find a Team… Become the Team 💻🔥
I tried forming a team on Discord (A new medium for me!!).
A few conversations happened. Nothing concrete.
And then came a simple thought:
If I can’t find a team, I’ll just become the team.
That decision changed everything.
No coordination overhead. No waiting. No alignment issues.
Just:
pure hacker mode ⚡
The Idea 💡
Healthcare is something I genuinely care about. Simple, real-world ones.
Like: remembering medications and maintaining daily health habits
So the idea became:
MediMate — A Proactive Wellness Agent 🏥
A lightweight AI system that:
- reminds people to take medication 💊
- tracks daily habits 📊
- suggests simple health improvements 🥗
- interacts conversationally 🤖💬
The goal was not perfection.
The goal was:
build something real in ~36 hours
The Hacker Mode Experience ⚡🧠
Something magical happened when I started coding.
All the noise disappeared.
No overthinking.
No imposter syndrome.
Just flow.
idea → code → test → break → fix → repeat 🔁
The stack:
- React Native (Expo) 📱
- FastAPI backend ⚙️
- LLM integration with HuggingFace models 🤖
- basic logging + agent loop
But:
it worked.
And that feeling? Still undefeated.
Devpost:
https://devpost.com/software/medimate-proactive-wellness-agent-via-llms
GitHub:
https://github.com/Arvindiyer/medimate
Video Demo
Note: Vibe coding is fun 🔥
The Emotional Rollercoaster 🎢
This weekend was not just technical.
It was emotional.
At different moments I felt:
- excited ⚡
- intimidated 😅
- curious 🤔
- nostalgic 💭
Seeing younger students building fearlessly reminded me of my early days.
And yes, at one point I even thought:
“Am I becoming irrelevant?”
But then a counter-thought came:
Experience does not slow you down. It gives you perspective.And that perspective matters!
A Quote I Made Up (Feel Free to Steal) 😄
Sometimes you don’t go to a hackathon to win. You go to remember why building once felt magical.
— A slightly older hacker with a beginner’s mind
What I Gained 🎯
Not a prize.
Not a ranking.
Something more valuable:
I rediscovered the joy of building.
And honestly, that was enough.
The Unexpected Benefit 🧠⚡
Hackathons reset your brain.
Hackathons remind you that ideas can become reality fast.
That mindset shift is powerful.
Also took baby steps into the crazy AI world 💭✨
A Small Personal Reflection 💭✨
This weekend reminded me why I started programming.
But because:
building felt magical.
Watching code turn into something real still feels like wizardry 🧙♂️
And honestly…
that feeling never gets old.
Even if you do. 😄
Final Thoughts 🌱
There were some amazing projects that genuinely inspired me.
They gave me new energy, not just for side projects, but even for my research.
Checkout projects here:
https://genai-genesis-2026.devpost.com/project-gallery
A Small Nerd Moment 🤓📊
Of course, I could not resist.
I scraped some data and did quick analysis.
And one pattern stood out:
Some visuals:
Disclaimer
This post is just my personal experience from the GenAI Genesis Hackathon.
Note:
AI helped refine this writing and also generated the images.