Generative AI took center stage at the intense 12-hour coding marathon, HackBurst’23, held at QBurst Trivandrum.

Excitement ran high as 38 teams comprising 140 participants with diverse experience (front-end, back-end, mobile, and QA) entered into a fierce battle to unlock solutions harnessing Generative AI. 

Hackathon Tracks

HackBurst’23, held on December 8-9, 2023, featured two tracks: Product Building and Treasure Hunt. The former challenged the teams to conceptualize and create innovative products using Generative AI. The latter tested the participants’ knowledge of Generative AI and problem-solving skills.

Product-Building

The challenge was to come up with Generative AI-enabled chat solutions that can help users to explore data using conversations or natural languages. Employing ChatGPT, Google Bard, Language Models (LLMs), and advanced frameworks like LangChain, our hacker teams vied with each other to prove their technical prowess and creativity. At the end of the hackathon, the teams demonstrated their products, complete with detailed implementation paths, to the judging panel.

Winners

Teams Cosmos (Nagendran Nagarajan, Abhijith K P, Kiran Ravindran, Sanjay Anil) and Paulstars (Abhishek Gopal, Siddharth S Sukumar, Mridul P M, Anoop Vikraman) emerged as winners in the challenging race. Team Fun Society (Sreeraj Babu, Sreelakshmi Purushothaman, Mebin Jose, Abhiram Madhu) earned a special mention for their innovative solution.

Treasure Hunt

For the Treasure Hunt, a time-traveling genie named Kairo required the participants to solve five puzzles disguised as stories. Utilizing programming tools like Python, JavaScript, Java, Ruby, PHP, and Shell scripts, the teams raced against time to decipher the puzzles and obtain the key to the treasure chest. 

Winners

Team Cosmos, which solved all the puzzles first, bagged the first prize. Eight other teams also managed to crack the puzzles.

Generative AI – The Original HackBurst Star

While the winners won prizes totaling Rs. 35,000, the true star of the event was Generative AI. 

Generative AI tools featured prominently not only in the challenge but also in its preparations. Communications including emails, chats, announcements, the character name “Kairo,” and the avatar image were generated using various Generative AI tools. AI was integrated into the finer details to finalize the theme and provide real-world context for the participants. 

More Than a Competition 

At HackBurst’23, participants not only got to showcase their knowledge of Generative AI but also gained rich learning experience. The event thus upheld the spirit of continuous learning and upskilling within QBurst.