CFGS6 Students Shine at Snap HQ, Winning
AR Hackathon with Social Awareness Lens
On Monday 1st October, 10 students from CFGS6 attended an exclusive AR Hackathon at Snap HQ in Farringdon via an opportunity from
CFGS6’s partnership with ZeroGravity.
The day opened with an introduction to the culture and vision of Snap by Kate Mellett, Head of Creative Strategy, UK. Kate took the audience on a journey of Snap from its beginning in 2011 to where it stands today as one of the leading technology companies in generating AR for social connectivity and global brands. Several global brand examples (KFC/ Nike/ McDonalds) were shared with students to demonstrate how AR has evolved and it is becoming embedded into contemporary marketing output.
Students were fortunate to have an audience with a panel of Snap experts and Snap Lens Lab 2024 Alumni. The panel discussed their career pathways into AR and working with Snap and what their most memorable/favourite Snap content has been in recent years. They also touched upon the importance of Snap in modern society and how it enables brands and communities to connect and communicate. Students were also given a sound piece of invaluable advice for how to accept challenges as this is a process of learning; something they could apply for the impending challenge and their own educational journey.
Once the panel concluded students were then introduced to their AR Hackathon Challenge – to create a lens to create awareness of an important topic or challenge in their community. Once launched they were whisked off to a creative hub set up with Macbooks and AR software.
CFGS6 students had a high speed and interactive tutorial of Snap’s software, Lens Studio, led by Shahwali Shayan (AR creator for Snap and founder of ‘Shahnanigans’). Shah took students through the different stage of lens production and shared some top tips on settings and items to be aware of when producing content. He walked students through the different software settings and aided them in building their own lens collectively following his instructions so they could get to grips with the production stages. Once completed students were able to log into their own Snap account and temporarily access their lens on the platform.
Half way through the day the Hackathon began! Students were set the task of choosing their topic/theme and had one hour to come up with a draft lens and create a pitch to the panel. There were a range of topics chosen by our students.
Students created a short 3 minute pitch to provide an overview of their cause, to create a positive representation and provided a visual perspective of the lens in action and the potential development of the lens. Each team received some constructive feedback on their pitches and were commended on their creativity and team work. The winner of round 1 were ‘Raising awareness for hidden disabilities’ who were given 1 hour to create a formal pitch to the Snap panel utilising the skillset and team. Sub teams were created to ensure a detailed and informative pitch was created and the development team worked with Shah to develop their lens using the feedback obtained from the pitch.
Time to Pitch!
Aniqa and Labiba pitched their product to the panel of experts and the remainder of their peers. They explained the rationale behind their topic, the need for hidden disabilities to be visible in society and celebrated. After pitching their idea, they were questioned on the future developments of the lens.
All pitches were well executed, concise and raised some key issues that students felt were in need of addressing in society. They ranged from raising awareness of recycling needs, to celebrating Black History Month, youth mental health and remembering those who had fallen from war. Amongst all the empowering topics and creative lenses, CFGS6 were crowned the Hackathon winners! Congratulations CFGS6!