New airport, new ideas

Western Sydney Airport Hackathon

On the 3rd and 4th of November 2022, I, along with ten other students from Year 9 & 10 had the privilege of visiting the new Western Sydney Airport and Springwood TAFE to participate in the Hackathon. The Hackathon was a friendly competition between a few schools, which allowed us to work together and use emerging technologies to improve the customer experience at the future airport.  

We were divided into separate groups and were made to work with students from other schools to each generate ideas and products  that would improve the airport. We were given the challenge of presenting our work to everyone at the end of the two-day workshop. 

This was a great opportunity to build and work with other students and allowed us to build on valuable collaborative skills for the future. We learnt about the design thinking process and were able to create innovative products in a fast-paced environment. 

All groups came up with really creative ideas. But most importantly, it was awesome to see how we all interacted with people we had never seen before. It was a great learning experience that I believe every student who participated benefited from.

My group had won the Hackathon and we were given the privilege to return to the airport on the 8th November 2022. We were given a tour of the airport site and learnt about the new sustainable features of the terminal and the overall construction of the airport. It was a great opportunity to learn about the processes of building such a large infrastructure project. I personally had loads of fun while gaining new ways of thinking and approaches to problems in a group environment.

Allegra Ng

House Captain - Chisholm