My First Hackathon Experience: Building a Virtual Herbal Garden

Every developer remembers their first hackathon — the excitement, the chaos, and the learning that comes with it.
For me, that moment came in February 2025 when I participated in my very first 24-hour hackathon at Terna College of Engineering, Navi Mumbai.

The Beginning of Something New

When I first heard about the hackathon, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had seen people talk about hackathons online — how they build projects in just a day — but I had never been part of one myself.
Still, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and participate. I gathered a small team, and together we started looking through the list of problem statements.

After a bit of discussion, one topic immediately caught our attention:
“Virtual Herbal Garden.”

It sounded unique — a project that combined technology with nature, something that could help people learn about herbal plants in a modern, interactive way. We decided to go all in.

Brainstorming the Idea

Our goal was simple:
To create a virtual space where users could learn about herbal plants and see them in 3D, almost like having a small herbal garden in their phone.

We started sketching out our plan:

• A website that lists different herbal plants with information about their uses.
• A 3D viewer to visualize each plant model interactively.
• And the ability to use a phone camera to view the plant virtually in real space.

The idea was ambitious, especially for a 24-hour event, but we were excited to try.

The 24-Hour Sprint

Once the hackathon started, the energy in the room was electric. Everyone was coding, designing, or debugging something.

We divided the work:

• I focused on building the frontend using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
• Another teammate worked on collecting plant data and writing descriptions.
• And another handled the 3D model integration using the <model-viewer> library — a web component that allows you to easily embed and interact with 3D models directly in the browser.

Seeing our first 3D herbal plant appear on the website felt magical — it was the moment we knew our idea could actually work.

Of course, it wasn’t smooth all the way.
We faced issues like:

• Models not rendering properly on mobile devices.
• Slow loading times for 3D assets.
• And the biggest challenge — staying awake and focused for 24 hours!

But every time something broke, we fixed it, learned something new, and kept going. The teamwork, the pressure, and the late-night debugging sessions all added to the thrill.

The Final Presentation

By the end of the 24 hours, we had a working prototype — a simple website that showcased different herbal plants, allowed users to rotate and zoom 3D models, and even view them through their phone camera in augmented reality mode (thanks to the <model-viewer>).

When we presented it to the judges, it felt incredible to demonstrate something we had built from scratch in just one day.
The best part wasn’t just completing the project — it was realizing how much we could achieve when we worked as a team under time pressure.

What I Learned

That hackathon taught me more than any regular coding session could:

• How to collaborate effectively under tight deadlines.
• How to plan and prioritize features in limited time.
• The importance of exploring new tools quickly and adapting fast.
• And most importantly — that building something functional is better than chasing perfection.

It was a huge boost to my confidence as a beginner developer.

Conclusion

Participating in my first hackathon was one of the most rewarding experiences of my journey so far.
I entered unsure and nervous but left inspired, confident, and excited to build more.

If you’ve never been to a hackathon before, my advice is simple:
Just go for it.
You’ll learn more in 24 hours than you might in weeks of tutorials — and you’ll walk away with memories, new friends, and a stronger belief in what you can create. 🚀