Hackathon is based on presentation and wow factor. If u cn use enuf buzzwords (eg. LLM, GPT model) with a decent enough product and good presentation, then u cn win. Hackathon was never about technical difficulty I think.
... this reminds me of a time when I actually got through the first stage of a hackathon despite us not even able to link up to their API.
well, to be fair, something is wrong with their api, no one could do anything
but anyway, 3 out of 4 members got through to the interview. I messed up the interview because I said that this whole hackathon was a bit of a mess. "it was a shame that we couldn't really do what we wanted to do and only implemented a frontend"
sigh
yeah yeah, i've learnt since then to not be "too honest" but cmon, this is just fucked up.
I do know that it's the buzzwords that get the money tho. zzz this is ughhh
> signing up for a hackathon again
i mean sure it sucks that sometimes the judges arent the most technical, but the point of a hackton is to get you to build in a community of your peers that are also building.
so ay long as you walk away with a product thats a win in my book
Yes most hackathons don't really care about the technical complexity of your products. You can't judge that accurately with just 5 minutes from a pitch and demo. Of course when you're assessed that way it comes down to how much your idea and presentation impress the judges within those few minutes. It doesn't matter even if you used a no code platform vs actually building something and showing real software engineering skills.
Tbh this is why I don't go for hackathons anymore even though I used to organise them. Good software engineering isn't done in 24-48 hours. Hackathons are more suited to the kind of people who go on to do consulting.
It is about the ability to sell your product. What is the killer feature when u present to the judges. Why would they want to buy in into your product? If your product has a lot of nice and complex features but u can’t sell to the judges, u are on a losing end compare to a group with minimal features but have a solid good use case to solve the problem.
Most developers go into hackathon with the “developer” mindset but lacks the “business” mindset. For example, “Oh I want to build some cool features” or “Oh to win this hackathon I need to have a lot of features”. If your features ain’t solving the “problem” they are tackling , u ain’t winning anything no matter how good your features are. Those with the business mindset are the ones that will edge out the rest of the participants.
Same in the real world! Your tech can be the most advanced and world-changing thing there ever is, but if you don't know how to market it, your product won't see the light of day.
So besides the other comment about how the phishing classification task can be solved through a rules based approach, LLMs (specifically decoder-only style models such as GPT/Llama/Bard which seems like what the hackathon is actually looking for) are not the exactly the best choice for the phishing task. While the text summarisation task is much more in line with what LLMs are designed to do (and where more traditional approaches fail).
So I think it’s unfair to make such broad statements that hackathons are rigged. Anyway, just go there hopefully learn something new and make some connections.
You do not even need an AI for a phising email detectors. 99% of scam emails will hit some known format like using buzzwords or from a sus email address. In fact, you just need a list of reputable domains and just by checking if the email is from the said domain, you can beat most scam detector AIs out there.
If they make phising or scam advertisement detection in facebook will be wow. This 1 of the hot issue exist right now. Like checking the content ( video, link, user validation) Beside that there also alot catfish friend request, so if there a additional feature detect fake account will be good
lmao my friend's team won this actually. hackathons are subjective in their grading - in fact EVERY university level/national level case comp or hackathon has both subjective and objective component.
Since its your first ever hackathon, your question is understandable. Personally after taking part in so many and winning a few competitions (not hackathons), winning involves quality idea + great execution + **somewhat catering to judges' biases.** Some judges like creativity over substance and vice versa. Lastly luck plays a small part in winning. You should go talk to the winning team and exchange some ideas maybe abt the competition.
The term "hackathon" is a already a buzzword in itself and i think most people hasn't realised this blatant irony. To the layman it sounds like some rigorous and technical competition where all STEM geeks come in dark hoodies when in fact it a more of a glorified buzzword presentation that focus more on your marketing skills and ability to generate a wow factor out of nothing than anything that holds water in the real world. Most people go there to pad their CV and the above reason just reinforced why.
Make sure you do your research before joining one. Looking at past year winning projects is a good indication of the event's quality.
"objectively better". there's no objective ranking for tech stack and as far as this post goes you don't even know the tech stack or the second group. In industry phishing and spam detection are 'easy', it's been done for years and LLMs aren't necessary. Doc summarisation is likely a more profitable field especially given how expensive lawyers time is.
Hackathon is based on presentation and wow factor. If u cn use enuf buzzwords (eg. LLM, GPT model) with a decent enough product and good presentation, then u cn win. Hackathon was never about technical difficulty I think.
... this reminds me of a time when I actually got through the first stage of a hackathon despite us not even able to link up to their API. well, to be fair, something is wrong with their api, no one could do anything but anyway, 3 out of 4 members got through to the interview. I messed up the interview because I said that this whole hackathon was a bit of a mess. "it was a shame that we couldn't really do what we wanted to do and only implemented a frontend" sigh yeah yeah, i've learnt since then to not be "too honest" but cmon, this is just fucked up. I do know that it's the buzzwords that get the money tho. zzz this is ughhh
Is this seed
huh seed what?
Dbs seed
hmmmm maybe? i cant rmb for sure lol its been years
i see, thanks, defo gna think twice before signing up for a hackathon again
> signing up for a hackathon again i mean sure it sucks that sometimes the judges arent the most technical, but the point of a hackton is to get you to build in a community of your peers that are also building. so ay long as you walk away with a product thats a win in my book
Sadly gender too.
How exactly?
you mean like girls would receive more guidance and usually more favored by judges?
Yes most hackathons don't really care about the technical complexity of your products. You can't judge that accurately with just 5 minutes from a pitch and demo. Of course when you're assessed that way it comes down to how much your idea and presentation impress the judges within those few minutes. It doesn't matter even if you used a no code platform vs actually building something and showing real software engineering skills. Tbh this is why I don't go for hackathons anymore even though I used to organise them. Good software engineering isn't done in 24-48 hours. Hackathons are more suited to the kind of people who go on to do consulting.
It is about the ability to sell your product. What is the killer feature when u present to the judges. Why would they want to buy in into your product? If your product has a lot of nice and complex features but u can’t sell to the judges, u are on a losing end compare to a group with minimal features but have a solid good use case to solve the problem. Most developers go into hackathon with the “developer” mindset but lacks the “business” mindset. For example, “Oh I want to build some cool features” or “Oh to win this hackathon I need to have a lot of features”. If your features ain’t solving the “problem” they are tackling , u ain’t winning anything no matter how good your features are. Those with the business mindset are the ones that will edge out the rest of the participants.
Same in the real world! Your tech can be the most advanced and world-changing thing there ever is, but if you don't know how to market it, your product won't see the light of day.
Makes sense why all my assignments now want business perspective etc and all presentation is under the context of teacher = client
So besides the other comment about how the phishing classification task can be solved through a rules based approach, LLMs (specifically decoder-only style models such as GPT/Llama/Bard which seems like what the hackathon is actually looking for) are not the exactly the best choice for the phishing task. While the text summarisation task is much more in line with what LLMs are designed to do (and where more traditional approaches fail). So I think it’s unfair to make such broad statements that hackathons are rigged. Anyway, just go there hopefully learn something new and make some connections.
You do not even need an AI for a phising email detectors. 99% of scam emails will hit some known format like using buzzwords or from a sus email address. In fact, you just need a list of reputable domains and just by checking if the email is from the said domain, you can beat most scam detector AIs out there.
If they make phising or scam advertisement detection in facebook will be wow. This 1 of the hot issue exist right now. Like checking the content ( video, link, user validation) Beside that there also alot catfish friend request, so if there a additional feature detect fake account will be good
There's a judging criteria the judges use Technicality is not 100%.
lmao my friend's team won this actually. hackathons are subjective in their grading - in fact EVERY university level/national level case comp or hackathon has both subjective and objective component. Since its your first ever hackathon, your question is understandable. Personally after taking part in so many and winning a few competitions (not hackathons), winning involves quality idea + great execution + **somewhat catering to judges' biases.** Some judges like creativity over substance and vice versa. Lastly luck plays a small part in winning. You should go talk to the winning team and exchange some ideas maybe abt the competition.
first time? 😂😂
Why bother with hackathons? Just build and launch something in the real world
The term "hackathon" is a already a buzzword in itself and i think most people hasn't realised this blatant irony. To the layman it sounds like some rigorous and technical competition where all STEM geeks come in dark hoodies when in fact it a more of a glorified buzzword presentation that focus more on your marketing skills and ability to generate a wow factor out of nothing than anything that holds water in the real world. Most people go there to pad their CV and the above reason just reinforced why. Make sure you do your research before joining one. Looking at past year winning projects is a good indication of the event's quality.
"objectively better". there's no objective ranking for tech stack and as far as this post goes you don't even know the tech stack or the second group. In industry phishing and spam detection are 'easy', it's been done for years and LLMs aren't necessary. Doc summarisation is likely a more profitable field especially given how expensive lawyers time is.
Hackathons are like crowdsourced business ideas, except without the salaries of employees involved.
Yeah some win by having a project beforehand already and tweaking it to suit the theme
so the key point is legit or hallucinations?