AutoHackathon

Inspiration

When participating on a hackathon every second counts. More than once I have submitted a project right to the last moment. So time saving is something I am always at the look out for. One part of the experience I always thought could be automated was the registration, having to go to multiple sites and filling forms to make sure you are registered correctly. And all of it needs to be done before you can really start working. Making that process easier and more smooth is the inspiration behind the project.

What it does

It automates the process of registration to an MLH hackathon. You only need to give the bot a name and it will register you in the mlh site, devpost and discord as well as fill out the check in form.

How we built it

The project was built using the RPA software UIPath Studio.

Challenges we ran into

The constant switching between web sites was a bit tricky to handle. The mlh check in form was specially hard to automate as many element had auto generated ids which made it complicated for UIPath to reproduce the steps consistently. Getting around these challenges required creativity and a lot of trial and error until a consistent set of automated steps, that were compatible, were found.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Getting the form automated was very rewarding. Making the bot as autonomous as possible only requiring the hackathon name from the user.

What we learned

Learned about RPA and learned how to create automated processes using UIPath Studio.

What's next for AutoHackathon

There are still several areas of a hackathon that can be further automated. The next step would be automating parts of the submission process. Which is a critically time-sensitive part of the hackathon.

Built With

• rpa
• uipath
• uipathstudio