From 2021 to 2024 I was lead technical organizer for NASA Space Apps in Beirut, supporting roughly 250–400 participants a year with a volunteer team of 10–15 people. The work included technical bootcamps using NASA datasets, problem selection, prototyping, competition requirements, and submission strategy. Over three consecutive years, teams we supported earned six Global Top 10 placements. Rafik Hariri University’s 2022 report on the event names me as the university’s student volunteer.
The useful lesson is that technical mentoring is not solving a participant’s project for them. It is building enough structure that a team can narrow a problem, understand the evidence, choose a tractable prototype, and tell the truth about what it achieved in a short weekend.
The placements belong to the teams and the wider community. Mentoring created the conditions, not the results.