The second Classified Post Hackathon achieved its goal of encouraging students to stretch their creative potential as they challenged themselves to design and produce a next-generation idea, product or solution. Judges commented on how the hackathon teams had developed believable projects with “tangible market potential,” and there was much praise for their professional presentation skills.
Organised by Classified Post, with AXA Hong Kong as the main sponsor, the Classified Post Hackathon took place November 17 to 19 at the Hong Kong Science Park (HKSTP). The event attracted more than 50 teams, who took on the challenge of creating apps and technology-based tools to solve business pain-points in the media and insurance sectors.
Alex Ho, general manager, recruitment, and circulation and syndication business at the South China Morning Post noted that hackathon participants had achieved something unusual -- they had invented a brand-new prototype product in just a few hours. “Each one of the shortlisted finalist teams delivered a unique perspective with their prototype, and their presentations were compelling and succinct,” said Ho. The hackathon was much more than a competition, Ho added, it was a hectic, high-pressure event where participants were able to gain a lot of new experiences.
The day after the opening ceremony and brainstorming session on November 17, participating teams were invited to make a three-minute presentation, with selected teams moving into the final round. After completing their project in the allocated 24-hour period on November 18, they entered the final round, held on November 19. Each team had 15 minutes to make its presentation, followed by a 10-minute Q&A session with the judges.
Noting that the Classified Post Hackathon would not be a success without the support of its main sponsors, AXA Hong Kong and the HKSTP, Ho said the year’s second hackathon provided another opportunity for students to explore and showcase their capabilities. Moreover, the sponsoring organisations benefitted from seeing brand new ideas and product prototypes being created. By extending the hackathon over three days, Ho said the teams who were shortlisted for the finals had more time to prepare their final presentations for the judging section. Meanwhile, the judges had more time to exchanging ideas and comments, and they were able to spend more time talking to hackathon participants during the networking sessions.
Impressed by the quality of the communication skills of the participants, and the amount of detailed information they included in their presentations, Isabel Lam, AXA (Hong Kong) chief people and corporate management officer, and a member of the insurance judging panel, said that hackathon participants demonstrated a high level of resourcefulness. In the process of developing their project prototypes, Lam said hackathon participants in the insurance category had obtained deep insights about the industry. “The amount of information the students acquired during the course of their research probably means they know more about the insurance industry than many people who actually work for AXA,” noted Lam, who invited hackathon participants with an interest in pursuing a career in the insurance industry to stay in touch with the company. “The insurance industry is rapidly transforming and offers a lot of interesting career opportunities,” said Lam.
During his post-hackathon summing up remarks, in addition to urging participants to join future Classified Post hackathons, Albert Wong, CEO of the HKSTP, congratulated hackathon participants on their innovative use of data provided by the HKSTP Data Studio. With access to data vital for correlating analysis, defining trends and making predictions, hackathon teams were able to build their digital solutions based on the applicant programming interface (API) data sets hosted at the HKSTP Data Studio.
Citing the example of a biotechnology company based in the Hong Kong HKSTP, which is seeking to recruit data analytics specialists, Wong pointed out the data analytics skills displayed by participants during the hackathon are in demand beyond the information and communications technology sectors. “Companies engaged in virtually every type of industry are looking for ways to harness data to make decisions and predictions that are better informed,” said Wong, suggesting that participants that took part in the hackathon could benefit from exploring career opportunities as data analysts and data scientists.
Far from adhering to the stereotypical hackathon image of a weekend fueled by caffeine, pizzas, and soft drinks, the HKSTP auditorium where the hackathon prototype development took place looked more like the well-organised control centre for the International Space Station when the event closed. There were no pizza crusts or squashed cans in sight.
After 24 hours of intensive data analysis, coding, and fine-tuning projects to prepare them for live demos, Ming Chun was named the winning team. The first runner-up was 9to5’ers, while Freeriders were the second runner-up. In the media category, WannaSmile was crowned the winning team, with ATM taking the first runner-up spot. Newbies were the second runner-up.
While hackathons are renowned for their high-energy environment, Ming Chun team members Gordon Cha Tsz-kwan, Elaine Chan Pui-kam, Billy Poon Ming-chun and Samson Chuk Ming-chun believe they produced their winning prototype project by remaining relaxed. “Once we had pitched our idea and worked out our general strategy, it was a matter of working towards our end-game,” says Chan. Ming Chun’s strategy focused on creating an online game aimed at university students, designed to improve their knowledge of the insurance industry.
“We termed our project ‘giving the insurance industry a face-lift’,” explains Chan. While Chan, a Baptist University computing and information science student, took the lead role in working on the presentation, the three male members of the team, IT students with the Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK), worked on developing the software. Describing their collaboration as “shaping a shared vision,” Chuk says the team played online games for more than four hours to get the feel of the design for their own game. “Some people may have wondered what we were doing, but we were actually doing research,” says Chuk.
First-runner up 9to5er’s team consisted of University of Hong Kong (HKU) graduates Eron Chan, Kenny Lim and Laura Chan. A key attraction of the Classified Post Hackathon was the fact there were no limitations on the disciplines or fields of study needed to enter. Students and fresh graduates from any academic background can join the competition. “As fresh business and government and law graduates, we were excited to combine our business skills with technology to make the access and information of insurance products more engaging,” explained Lim. Leveraging Laura Chan’s interest in graphic design, the 9toFiver's combined blockchain and big data to create an online Agent-E Chatbot.
The chatbot advised on different areas of insurance ranging from travel and car insurance, to medical and life insurance. “A key aim was to develop a user-friendly tool that could answer the type of questions about insurance that so many people have, without having to spend time talking to an agent,” says Lim.
There was plenty to smile about in the media category. WannaSmile, the winning team, said the team settled on the name because a smile would be the reaction of securing a “dream job”, the focus of their solution prototype. Benny Wong Kin-fai, Matthew Tam Kin-pak and Jacky Kwan Tsz-kit, all Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) information and networking students, explained how they used their artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning knowledge to create a tool that uses an AI interface to automatically match the skills of jobseekers to “best fit” job vacancies offered by employers. Using neural networks and deep learning, which provide image recognition, speech recognition, and natural language processing solutions, the three team members impressed the judges with their effectiveness of their prototype. “We were working under pressure, but we were fairly confident that our concept would provide a viable solution,” said Wong, who added that the main reason for joining the hackathon was to gain experience of building a tool from scratch while working to a deadline.
ATM, the first runner-up, consisted of City University of Hong Kong (CityU) computer systems engineer students Mavis Chan Tsz-ching, Nick Ng Ysz-wing, Cally So Nga-yin, Tommy Lo Shai-fai, and Bertrand Kwok Ping-chung. The main objective of their project was to produce a working prototype, while making sure the team had contingency plans in place to ensure their presentation went smoothly. “At every development stage we incorporated a back-up plan,” said So. The ATM team, whose acronym stands for “aims and time management,” divided designing, marketing and presentation responsibilities among themselves to produce a “Career GPS” prototype project that matched career aspirations with job vacancies. “We wanted to create something that is easy to use but functional. something that is useful to employers and jobseekers,” explained Chan.
The Bits and Bytes team, consisting of Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) computer science and engineering students Archit Kithania, Abdalla Moustafa and Dineth Perera, demonstrated the accuracy of the oft-repeated observation that hackathons test resilience, flexibility and time management. The team managed to attend a mathematics lecture at the university before racing back to the HKSTP to make their prototype project presentation to the judges. They arrived with just seconds to spare. “We factored in that we would need to attend our maths lecture before we made our presentation, but it ended up being a bit of a challenge, as we had not slept for 24 hours,” admitted Kithania.
First-time hackathon participant, Patrick Kon, who is studying electronics at the City University of Hong Kong (CityU), said he could feel the creative “pulse” of the event. “There was a real sense that productivity was taking place,” noted Kon, who added that joining the hackathon had been an inspirational learning curve for himself and his fellow “Newbies” team mates. It took the Newbie team a couple of hours to get into a project-building rhythm, Kon said. But once the team had divided up its coding and data analytics responsibilities, there was time to absorb the atmosphere of the event. “It was certainly an experience I learned something, from and won’t forget,” said Kon.
Sam Ng, Thomas Yeung, Cherry Tsui, Cheery To and Mandy Chong, CUHK first-year fintech students, joined together to form the Freeriders. The team say the high-octane atmosphere of the hackathon enabled them to work through the 24 hours to create an interactive AI tool that allows customers to identify “best-fit” insurance solutions which match their needs. “There are many takeaway benefits from joining the hackathon, but one key benefit is the need to be precise and concise when making a presentation,” said Tsui.
