On the 27th of October we met at the 3^rd edition of DevHacks at DESCHIS Gastrobar, a nice place that hosted us for around 30 hours. How is that possible for an event you may ask…

It all started with a strong passion for tech and the desire to solve real problems and create a smarter society. We knew from the start that this involves a lot of hard work and crazy ideas, but this is where all the fun begins.

So, for the 3rd time in a row, we launched a new challenge: a 24 hours competition of coding where all the persons passionate about technology can develop innovative solutions and make the most of a great opportunity of networking with people that share the same passion.

On Friday, 27th of October, at 12:00, we said START Hackathon!

28 teams began to work on their challenge. The first one was to create a solution for retail, and together with the help of Metro Systems we launched the challenge of creating a Smart Shopping Experience.

The other challenge was based on one of our objective, to support the women in tech. Together with Accenture we’ve launched a challenge that will produce management solutions based on Scrum metodology in order to support diversity in the companies.

The greatest ideas came to life

For 24 hours, we saw a lot of hard work, but also great ideas. For example, team Dry Solid, who also won the first place for the Women in Technology challenge, developed a gamified approach for delegating better the tasks. The app helps you build teams based on the every person’s skill and based on an Artificial Intelligence algorithm which estimates the level of difficulty.

For the Smart Shopping Experience challenge, the first place was won by team ProTechT. The developed an ecosystem of apps for the hypermarkets which helps them to provide better services for the customers though the delivery and security service.

For example, one customer selects in the app the products that he desires and one employee of the hypermarket receives the shopping list on his device. Then, he collects all the products from the storehouse and makes the delivery request. The client is notified by app where the product is, or via webcams, he can see live how the products are managed.

Mentoring sessions

Apart from the hours spent coding, the participants also had the chance to interact with mentors who have played a key role. Mentors helped the participants to generate, develop ideas and solve problems. Also they were available for the entire duration of the hackathon and participants had benefited of answers  to them questions.

For example, IT professionals from Metro Systems like Aura Virgolici, Liviu Esanu, Andrei Vidvischi, Accenture and Gameloft with Tudor Filip Radovici, Ionut Stoican and Bogdan Raducu joined the event to get to know better the teams and helped them with fresh ideas and approaches to use while designing their project.

Part of the hackathon were also the mentors and investors who wanted to get involved and give support to the teams.

We got the chance to meet Cristian Orasanu, General Manager Innovations Incubator: Powered by Crossrider Plc, Robert Knapp, CEO CyberGhost, Sergiu Ardelean, Augmented Reality Evangelist Artivive, Adrian Gaspar, Layout Engineer and organiser of the first edition of Robochallenge, and Radu- Sebastian Amarie, Head of Engineering at Findie.

Cool Gadgets & Devices

Because gadgets are now a must-have and make easier any process, the participants had the chance to use gadgets & devices that helped them to develop their projects.

For example,  Symme3D brought a 3D printer, and Playwing provides gadgets like Google Glasses, Raspberry Pi3, Webcams, 3 Smartphones, mini iPag, LEDs and many other smart devices that made the work easier for the teams.

The fun part

When you work hard, you also need some breaks. So the entertainment did not miss at DevHacks!

If you were passionate about gaming, then DevHacks would have been just like heaven. Why is that?

The main attraction was the Racing Simulator brought by Redbull where the participants relaxed by riding cars from Formula 1. They also could play games on two PlayStation 4, or enter the Virtual Reality world and play with their friends VR Escape Room from VR Center.

DevHacks was a experience full of benefits. The participants had the chance to develop their skills, meet experts in the field and interact with them and we were glad to see passionate people and discover their original and brilliant ideas.

Thank you everyone for your participation and we are waiting to join us next year! ?