Porsche AI Coding Days 2021: Bigger, better, smarter
More participants, more projects — and two winning teams: The second edition of our hackathon saw 80 participants working in 13 teams during 2 days on solutions using artificial intelligence to help to master major challenges from daily business. Finally, a crowd of over 200 participants voted their favorite project during a virtual presentation event: a tool that automatically detects anomalies in the data traffic of Porsche’s IT infrastructure in order to prevent hacker attacks. The prize of a newly formed jury representing the Porsche AG was won by a solution that helps to continuously improve the user experience of the infotainment system of next-generation Porsche vehicles.
In the various business domains of Porsche AG, artificial intelligence can help to improve processes, from accounting to development. But above all, new technologies like AI are exciting. They push the boundaries of what is possible and stimulate creativity and curiosity, especially when you work as a team — like at our Porsche AI Coding Days.
After last year’s successful premiere of the Porsche AI Coding Days, even more people came together this time to work in teams for 48 hours on projects selected from the numerous ideas submitted by many Porsche business domains. 80 hackers from eight companies including Porsche AG, Porsche Digital, Porsche Engineering, MHP and Porsche Partners from qdive, One Logic, Micronova, Exxeta and Star.Global tinkered with five projects selected from 30 idea sketches.
For us, the hackathon was a great tool to get even more colleagues excited about artificial intelligence and to learn more about the potential of this technology. The event helps us to network internally and externally and can help to break down fears of contact when it comes to new technology.
The favorite of the audience: AI support for network security
In the public vote, Team Blue from Porsche Engineering prevailed over the other projects by using artificial intelligence to find suspicious patterns in log file data. The majority of the more than 200 spectators at the virtual grand finale event voted in favor of the tool, which can detect potential attacks by analyzing network traffic data from the Porsche network. The idea: Discovering anomalies in the data streams quickly and automatically can help counteract attacks on Porsche’s IT infrastructure.
Especially since many services are now offered in the cloud and cars are becoming increasingly connected, the issue of cybersecurity is becoming more and more important. Team Blue demonstrated how modern security systems can be implemented and what added value artificial intelligence offers in IT security.
The jury’s favorite: Improving human-machine interaction with the help of AI
This year there was a small novelty: In addition to an audience award through voting, the event also featured a jury of experts who selected a winning project, consisting of Silke Dongus-Sattler as well as Dr. Armin Kurrle, both Lead Data & AI Strategy at Porsche AG, Simone Schulz, Director IT Smart Mobility and Antoon Versteeg from Innovation Management.
The jury’s favorite result has been achieved by team Caycan from Porsche Digital Croatia. They developed an AI application that draws insights from the interaction between humans and machines to further improve the infotainment experience of users in a Porsche in a data-driven way. In addition to the successful presentation, the jury was particularly impressed by the fact that the team had achieved to lay a solid foundation for the further development of the project idea in just two days. In addition, the added value for the department was clearly recognizable in this project.
An opportunity to grow
The benefits of the hackathon go far beyond the successful realization of the projects, which will be continued after the competition. Becoming a team for 48 hours, and solving problems together brings the whole Porsche family closer together.
In the teams, experienced AI developers collaborated with talented beginners and shared their knowledge. UI and UX experts helped all teams during the competition with many tips and insights on not only the presentation but also the development of frontends. The event deepens the understanding of artificial intelligence and its enormous potential for the whole organization. And it proved again: collaboration is what takes us forward.
About this publication: Where innovation meets tradition. There’s more to Porsche than sports cars — we’re tackling new challenges, develop digital products and think digital with a focus on the customer. On our Medium blog, we tell these stories. It’s about our #nextvisions, smart technologies and the people that drive our digital journey. Please follow us on Twitter (Porsche Digital, Next Visions), Instagram (Porsche Digital, Next Visions, Porsche Newsroom) and LinkedIn (Porsche AG, Porsche Digital) for more.
