Back in November, I attended my very first hackathon—Hack The Future, one of the biggest hackathons in Belgium where students from all over the country gather to solve IT challenges and compete for top prizes. Since this was my first time participating, I was both excited and a little nervous, unsure of what to expect. But in the end, I had an absolute blast!
I teamed up with a fellow Howest student, Pepijn Algoedt, and we signed up for the OpenShift Galaxy Challenge. This challenge involved deploying an air-gapped environment in Red Hat OpenShift. Since our knowledge of containerization and OpenShift was limited, we saw this as the perfect opportunity to learn more about these technologies.
We were free to choose what to deploy within the challenge, so we brainstormed ideas. After some discussion, we decided to deploy a honeypot—a system designed as a decoy to lure cyberattackers, helping organizations detect, deflect, and study hacking attempts. Unfortunately, we ran into numerous issues and spent a lot of time configuring and setting it up.
With only two hours left, we realized we needed to pivot quickly. Luckily, we came up with a new plan: to build a Capture The Flag (CTF) platform with one challenge. Setting up and deploying the CTF platform went smoothly, and we finished just in time to prepare our presentation!
At the end of the hackathon, all participants presented their solutions to the Piros coaches. It was inspiring to see everyone’s work, hear about their struggles, and celebrate their successes. After the presentations, both coaches and participants voted for their top three solutions. The winners were announced during the closing ceremony.
At the end of the event, a special ceremony was held to announce the winners for each challenge. To our surprise, we were nominated—and even more incredibly, we finished in third place! We honestly didn’t expect to rank so high, especially given all the challenges we faced along the way. It was an amazing feeling and a fantastic reward for our hard work and perseverance.
During the event, we also had the chance to take part in some fantastic side activities. We enjoyed a free visit to the Zoo of Antwerp, which was a great way to relax and have some fun between challenges. On top of that, we were treated to delicious meals and drinks during lunch and the ceremony, making the whole experience even more memorable.
