Junction 2023: second place in Huawei's Sense the Motion challenge

Choosing a challenge

At Junction 2023, our first hurdle was picking a challenge. None of the options clicked with us right away, so we went through each one and weighed the pros and cons. Our criteria included a prize worth competing for and a chance to build something people would actually enjoy using.

We settled on Huawei’s “Sense the Motion” challenge, which was about getting young people to be more physically active. It also had some of the best prizes at the event, so it ticked the prize box too.

From games to a platform

Our first idea was to digitize traditional games to get young people moving. We soon realized that simply digitizing them wouldn’t be enough. So we widened the scope to a platform that brings several traditional games together and uses data collected from the players to turn exercise into a game. That platform is what we spent the weekend building.

Filming the demo with a drone

For the pitch, we needed to show the games being played. I happened to have my drone with me, and we used it a lot when filming the demo video. The aerial shots made the presentation more dynamic and showed what the platform could look like in real use.

Judging and results

We were picked as one of the top teams in the challenge, which meant pitching our solution privately to the judges. The pitch went well, and we were proud of what we had built in one weekend.

At the closing ceremony, we thought we had a shot at third place. When another team was named third, we lowered our expectations. Then our team’s name was called for second place in the Huawei challenge.

Thanks to the team

Thank you to our team. This result wouldn’t have happened without every one of you. Junction 2023 was a weekend well spent, and I’m already looking forward to the next one together.