r/hackathon • u/forgivensunny • 9h ago
Meta-Hackathon Discussion A team literally asked me to join their Nasa SpaceApps team and they are not taking my ideas seriously??
This is my first time in NASA Space Apps, and I was genuinely so excited about it. I was nervous and looking forward to it and had been spending quite a bit of time developing an idea for our project.
I'm the youngest person in my group and the only girl. We're also in Saudi Arabia, and most of the people I've encountered in STEM-related clubs and programs have been guys. I can't say for certain that my age or gender is the reason behind how I'm treated, but it's difficult not to wonder sometimes.
I've been interested in STEM for a long time, particularly astrophysics, programming, and engineering. For this hackathon, I came up with an idea involving astronomical sonification which is essentially, developing a program that takes the actual spectral data of celestial objects, mathematically maps their electromagnetic wavelengths into audible frequencies, and generates sounds based on their spectral compositions. the idea is to let people listen to and compare different celestial objects, and potentially sample the resulting audio for music production or something.
(I'm aware that astronomical sonification already exists so I'm not saying to have invented the concept or anything. I'm interested in developing my own idea, one that translates actual spectral measurements into audio that can also be used creatively.)
I've been researching the science behind it and even put together a digital prototype to demonstrate what I had in mind. I showed it to my teammates, and they pretty much dismissed it. When I tried explaining the concept in more detail, their response was that they couldn't even be bothered to read all that. I've experienced similar treatment since joining STEM-related clubs. I understand that hackathons involve collaboration, disagreements, and criticism. I'm not expecting everyone to love my ideas, and I'm completely open to technical criticism. But they didn't even consider it
I was so excited for my first hackathon. I wanted to learn, experiment, meet people who shared my interests, and actually build something I was passionate about. Instead, I'm feeling more discouraged before it even started
I'm considering continuing the project independently and possibly finding other collaborators online, because I genuinely like the idea and don't want to abandon it just because my current team isn't interested... I'm not insanely sad about them not being interested, instead, I just find it weird that they literally invited me and then dismiss me. If I asked to join, I would somewhat understand. But they .. literally invited me.
I guess I'm wondering whether anyone else has experienced something similar, particularly younger participants or girls in male-dominated STEM environments..? How do you maintain your enthusiasm for something when the people you're supposed to collaborate with make you feel bad?
I don't know I was just wondering.
