Astro Hack Week Hack Template
A hack is a small, well-defined project or idea you might not get to during your normal work day, Things You Always Wanted To Try, etc. They can involve code, but they don’t have to! At the start of each afternoon we will invite you to stand up and say what you work on and if you need help with anything (the hack “pitches”). Each evening we will invite you to share and/or show what you have achieved (the “wrap-up session”). Importantly, hacks should be results-driven, so it is important that you try to plan a little bit what you want to achieve, and try to complete that quickly, or even to quickly identify if you can realise what you want to do (i.e., fail quickly). Some more notes:
* What you say during our hack pitches at the beginning of each afternoon is open and again you have absolutely no obligation to actually work on that. It’s ok to change your mind during the day. It’s also totally fine to work on more than one (or ten!) hacks. Some people will choose to work on one big hack during the whole week. Some others will work on many small diverse hacks. Do what you like!
* Hack can fail. In fact, you should be proud to show the result of a failed hack at the end of a day during the wrap up session! Hacks are about getting to a result as quickly as possible. Failing fast at a project or idea is a very useful skill for all of us. One of the core goals of Astro Hack Week is learning. It is also ok to show an incomplete/unfinished project/hack during the wrap up session
* Another core goal is to work with others. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, even if what you ask for might sound basic. Most of the time it is not! And no one will emit a judgement anyway. Please also feel free to join groups and hack with others on their ideas, it’s fun!
* Hacks can be anything. Some examples: writing documentation for a code (whether it is yours or not!); prototyping an idea; doing a survey of the literature for a range of methods, and comparing them; writing a tutorial for a method; etc. In fact, we encourage you to write tutorials, notes, or code notebooks for anything you learn about during Astro Hack Week. We find that it is a wonderful way to share what you have learned with others, and allow them to learn as well. This is also a concrete outcome that you can show and share after Astro Hack Week. And it might also be useful for future generations of hackers (we find that it does!).
Some more information can be found in this guide on how to hack and Hacking Central.
Hack Template
Below, you'll find a template for you to fill out with your hack ideas. It will guide you through developing your project idea into something that is manageable in the time available during the week, and also aid you in recruiting the help they might need. Feel free to copy and paste this template below and use the prompts to develop a short description for what you'd like to do.
Title
A snappy title for your hack!
Hack Creator
- Who came up with the idea? Who is the person pitching the hack?
Why?
- What is the problem to be solved?
- Why is this problem important?
- What progress can we make this week on this problem?
What?
- What resources are needed to complete the project?
- Is any data set needed ready to be used, or are there significant data processing/cleaning steps? Note: Unless the hack itself is a data cleaning hack (totally valid hack, by the way!), it’s best if the data access/processing/cleaning is done in advance of the hack week.
- What computational resources are needed, and is access to them secured?
How?
- What are the steps and tasks needed to complete the project?
- How much time is each step projected to take? Remember that things often tend to take longer than you expect!
Who?
- Are there any minimum knowledge requirements for helping out with the project?
- Is there a space for participants with little knowledge? E.g. in trying out code, writing documentation, helping with tutorials ...
- What skills are particularly relevant to the project?