USC SEP x a16z Hackathon

To cap off LA Tech Week, I joined a team of 4 other members at USC's SEP AI Hackathon, sponsored by a16z. We met just after the opening ceremony, grabbed dinner, then set up camp in one of the campus dorm lounges. We were told ahead of time that the judges would be looking for a product that solves a real problem, so we spent a lot of time brainstorming what we wanted to build and making sure that we chose an idea that solved a significant problem.

After 2 hours, we agreed on BreatheSafe, an app that uses AI video monitoring to detect warning signs of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS. SIDS is the leading cause of death in infants, and research has shown that it is linked to the infants' sleep patterns. Babies who sleep on their stomach or on loose, fluffy blankets are at higher risk of re-inhaling carbon dioxide, slowing breathing rates and causing SIDS.

BreatheSafe monitors the infant's breathing rate, sleeping position, and any risk-increasing objects. The data and live video feed are sent to the BreatheSafe app on the parent's phone and sends real-time reports on the baby's risk of SIDS. If the infant's breathing rate falls under a certain threshold for a long period of time, a critical warning is sent, designed to wake the parents up from sleep to check on the baby.

This was not an easy project to construct. Our main issue was that we didn't have a sleeping baby on hand to test our system with, so we had to settle for YouTube videos or static images. We trained the AI on images of babies sleeping, but we could only test the live feed on ourselves. Adults and babies have different breathing patterns, so this was a big problem for us.

Moreover, the difference in a baby's chest when it rises and when it falls is minute, making it difficult for us to fine-tune the monitoring system. Because we were only expected to make a functioning MVP, we trained the system on babies as much as we could, but tested the detection on ourselves.

At 2AM, we moved locations to another team member's house. By 6AM, each of our team members were nearing completion on our respective components of the system. One person was working on detecting the baby's sleeping position, two people were working on detecting the breathing rate, one person was working on the front end, and I was working on integrating training data to the monitoring system.

Integrating 4-5 different GitHub repositories was going to be difficult, and some members of the team had classes to attend. We only had until 3PM to submit our finalized code and a 2 minute demo video for judging, but the team was exhausted. Winning the hackathon was important, but we decided to put our health first and took an hour to sleep.

I woke up stretched across two dining chairs, freezing cold and extremely groggy. My teammates started asking me questions about my code as soon as my eyes opened, and I could barely stay awake long enough to answer them. I slurped up the rest of a Taco Bell coffee that I left on the table, ate a mint, and tried my best to sit up.

Because I run Chirp, I already have a lot of the tools that I needed for the hackathon: Cursor Pro, Canva Pro, CapCut Pro, Expo Go, and ChatGPT Plus. A teammate of mine used her company account for an insane amount of Claude tokens, and I witnessed firsthand how powerful Claude is. It made me a little frustrated that I wasn't using it for Chirp. It would be an extra add to my budget that I can't afford right now, but definitely something that I would consider if we won a cash prize.

Hackathons have changed so much since I first started participating when I was 15. Everyone uses AI for everything. As a result, we're able to pump out much more mature products by the end of the hacking sprint. I was impressed by how much we were able to accomplish with the right tools and experience.

In an attempt to leap over the largest hurdle of the hackathon, I began to integrate everyone's code into one repo. It took me over an hour just to install all of the new files and dependencies. In the meantime, the rest of my team started on our demo video, went on a coffee run, and continued to refine the UI.

I'm not old by any means, but it was funny working with 20-year-old students. While I was working on integrating the code, one of my teammates padded downstairs, barefoot and in a hoodie and sweats. "We, like, lowkey made a way better version for you to put into your thing," he reports, reaching up to scratch the back of his head. "Cool," I reply, navigating to his GitHub repo. "I'll add it in."

As submission deadline of 3PM approached, the team started to feel the pressure. I clicked furiously across my laptop, editing a 2-minute trailer/demo video to submit along with our GitHub repo. My teammates shouted out suggestions as I went, watching my laptop screen mirrored on the living room TV. Meanwhile, two teammates were putting together the README.md of the repo, which the judges were to reference in order to figure out how to run our code.

"Can I click submit? I'm going to hit submit."
"Yeah, do it!"
"Ok, I did it!"

Cooling down from the adrenaline rush of the overwhelming past hour, we chatted for a bit before going our separate ways. At 5PM, we reconvened in a basement auditorium for the closing ceremony. We started with an panel interview of the judge, Michael Broughton, a Forbes 30 under 30 member and owner of a Y Combinator backed company. The student judges decided the top 10 submissions, then allowed Michael to select who won the top three prizes.

"And now, announcing the winners..."
"In 3rd place..."
"BreatheSafe!"

It took me a few moments to recognize the name as my project. I quickly stood, making my way to the front of the room along with the rest of my team. They handed us a bouquet of flowers and a giant check for $1,000. We took pictures with Michael, then watched as our demo video was played for the entire audience.

I was stunned. This was the first time that I had submitted a hackathon project for judgement, and I won! We didn't win first place, but I was extremely proud of what my team and I managed to accomplish in just 24 hours.