Hackathon Terra Challenge - NPM Init Mate Interview

Following the ESI hackathon experience where Terra powered one of the challenges, we caught up with one of the 3 winning teams, NPM Init Mate, who was formed of Mohamed, Maria, Lyes, Sami, and Abdelaghafour. They built Habito, which makes use of the Terra data to provide a gamified habits-tracking experience, in addition to an AI model to predict chronic diseases based on the historical data.

How did you come up with the team name?

The name is npm init mate

• The first part of it, "npm init" came from the famous command line to initiate a node.js project .But at the same time it represents one of our common things, JavaScript, since we were all part of a full stack Javascript Training inside our club last year, and currently are doing this training as mentors for the new club joiners
• The second part, "mate" or "init mate" is a common line that we use between us when we want to imitate the british accent

Where did the project idea come from?

The process of choosing an idea took around 14 hours where we were bouncing between several ideas until we were satisfied with this one!

We were looking for a way to exploit the terra API in a creative way that benefits everyone, so we thought of using the data to create a habit tracking app, but our first instinct was "it already exists" and we all agreed it is hard to maintain using these apps consistently. That's when we thought "why not implement a reward system" that would benefit the user first, and make them become a daily user, all that while implementing a cashback system where with each reward claimed by the user, we get a small commission from the company providing the reward, thus benefiting these companies too with exposure and clients.

This would create a virtuous circle that would benefit positively every part!

What's the underlying technical architecture? Who did what on the team?

• Abdelaghafour was working on the UI/UX
• Maria was working on the frontend in addition to UI/UX and preparing the pitch
• Mohamed was handling the AI models, in addition to backend and frontend
• Sami was switching between backend and frontend as a full stack
• Lyes was working on the backend and the marketing plan

We all helped in finalizing the idea and adding extra features / values.

How does the Terra API fit in? What was good about it and what could be improved?

The use of Terra API is essential for the functionality of our app, is it is the key to provide a customised experience for every single user based on their health data: using this data, we can determine the correct goal for each habit relative to the user so they gets rewarded if meets the goals that are specific for them. Additionally, due to the Terra data being presented in a uniform clean structure, it made it easy for us to use it as inputs in our AI models to predict chronic diseases that users might have and act accordingly.

What was the highlight of the hackathon for each one of you? (could be anything)

• Lyes: "My highlight would be the moment we finalized the idea in all aspects, they say don't fall in love with your idea, but not gonna lie i did. Another highlight would be the talk with the svelt coach, his energy and love for what he does made me wanna create my own js library and share it to the community."
• Sami: "The highlight for me is pretty predictable, it was the moment the name NPM Init Mate was announced as one of the winners of the terra challenge. Another highlight would be a conversation we had with one of the coaches about web frameworks which was very refreshing also without forgetting all the good laughs I had with my teammates during the hackathon."
• Maria: "My highlight from HackIT is most definitely the caffeinated nights I shared with my teammates. When coding, laughing, struggling, eating together or even arguing.. Every moment mattered ❤"
• Abdelghafour: "For me, Hack!it was my first hackathon, and I loved the competitive spirit, the moments we were brainstorming, and of course choosing the name "Habito" for our app was the best part x)."
• Mohamed: "It was a great hackathon overall, coffee breaks was the best thing, it was really helpful especially in a hackathon, I also liked challenges (Terra challenge to be more specific), it kind of gave me an idea of what are we going to work on in the real world."

Moving forward, what did you learn from this experience?

If we talk about the technical side, we learned several things, like the use of webhooks or getting comfortable with the use of external APIs and implementing them into a full stack project.

In terms of soft skills, we managed to improve our team work, and how to split tasks and work simultaneously and efficiently, without leaving anyone left out

If you had more time, what would you improve?

First of all we would complement the implementation of the AI and link everything together more neatly. Other than that, we would create a mobile application that goes along with the website to make our solution more accessible, while also adding more complex algorithms to calculate the points, and offer a dynamic UI that changes depending on the user stats, thus offering a unique experience for each user.