Kiwi.com sponsors one of the biggest IT hackathons in the Czech Republic
From programming a drone to speech recognition to car race, tech enthusiasts enjoyed a weekend full of hacking, learning, and networking
The weekend of 9 and 10 November has marked a special event for all tech enthusiasts. Some 150 international and local techies gathered at Impact Hub Brno to form teams and enjoy 36 hours programming, hacking, and learning.
The already fifth hackathon — first under the name CodeBrew — was organized by ENGETO Academy specializing in IT education. Sponsors of the event include companies such as CGI, SolarWinds, Red Hat, and Kiwi.com.
Running from Saturday morning and well into Sunday afternoon — including all night! — participants could attend lectures, workshops, and network with industry professionals. Attendees also received support from mentors from different tech companies, including two mentors from Kiwi.com.
Michal Cáb, one of the mentors from Kiwi.com, said about the event:
“Events like this one are important because they support communities of programmers. People feel they belong to communities.”
“They are also about reaching the limits of individuals. In the end, people achieve something they couldn’t imagine achieving before a hackathon. Attendees are able to find new friends to talk about programming for the rest of their lives.”
Each challenge was designed to prepare individuals for the development of future-breaking applications and solutions
Upon arriving at the venue, attendees were asked to form teams. Teams of both beginner and advanced programmers were challenged by tracks focused on Java, C#, and Python. From programming a drone to speech recognition to car races, each challenge was designed to prepare individuals for the development of future-breaking applications and solutions.
Attendee Elina said about the hackathon: “Events like this can be useful to engineers at any level. For students, this is a rare opportunity to add a real project to their portfolio.
“If you are not a student, it is nice to try yourself as a mentor, manager, or programmer in a completely new field. Getting out of the comfort zone like that helps to boost team spirit and avoid burnout.”
What’s more, the winning team received a prize worth 25,000kč. Sponsored by Kiwi.com and ENGETO, team members were awarded flight ticket vouchers for their travels and a cash reward. There were also other awards, such as five Tello drones in the drone programming challenge.
“Our team wrote artificial intelligence for a race car. During the races, the three best cars competed, not inferior to the championship. The whole team seemed to be a single emotion. Especially during the final race,” says attendee Elina about the final car racing challenge, which her team won.
“I learned that it is important to switch from your idea to someone else’s. And start working on it with the same enthusiasm as on your own. I think the ability to quickly get away from failed ideas helped us win,” she continues.
Both ENGETO and Kiwi.com are continuously organizing events for all levels of programmers and tech enthusiasts. Visit code.kiwi.com/events/home to see the events calendar.
