Hack&Grow Fest 2024:
Welcome to 'AI Storytellers
A Comprehensive Innovation and Career Development Experience
//Event Overview//
The Hack&Grow Fest 2024 gathered over 450 developers from 20 countries, including the UK, the US, Germany, and Sweden, to engage in interactive activities to foster technical innovation and career development. The festival offered a well-rounded platform where participants could participate in workshops, mock interviews, speed-dating sessions with industry experts, and resume-building workshops. These activities were designed to test participants' technical skills and enhance their career readiness, making Hack&Grow Fest a unique personal and professional growth opportunity.
The AI Storytellers Hackathon stood out as a core feature among these activities. Over 30 teams developed AI-driven solutions to improve content consumption, tackling challenges like text summarization, content personalization, and interactive media. However, the hackathon was just one part of the festival’s broad offering, which aimed to provide participants with practical knowledge and direct insights from the industry’s top minds.
//Notable Projects and Prizes//
The competition featured exceptional submissions, and three projects stood out:
- FocusFeed — Winner awarded $1,000 for transforming educational content into engaging video summaries.
- Long Story Short — Second place, awarded $300 for creating a Chrome extension for customizable webpage summarization.
- AI-Powered Mindmap Creator — Third place, awarded $200 for visualizing complex information through AI-powered mind maps.
//Workshops & Career Development//
Hack&Grow Fest also included several sessions specifically aimed at career advancement. In the mock interview sessions, participants interacted with experts from leading global tech firms, including Microsoft, AWS, Meta, Oracle, and Goldman Sachs. These mock interviews provided invaluable real-world experience, offering participants detailed feedback on tackling challenging technical interviews, standing out among candidates, and solving practical problems that often arise in major tech companies.
The resume-building workshop added another layer of career support. Experts reviewed actual CVs submitted by participants and provided hands-on advice on personalizing resumes for different roles, focusing on metrics and structuring to highlight technical expertise. This workshop helped participants tailor their resumes to the expectations of recruiters in the tech field.
Interview Experts:
- Alexander Tkachenko — Senior Software Engineer, Playtech
- Natalia Loginova — Lead Software Engineer, Women in Tech
- Igor Aleksandrov — Co-founder & CTO, JetRockets
- Artem Kuchuk — Technical Lead, Greentube GmbH
- Aleksandr Timashov — ML Engineer, Meta
- Vered Sheinman — Senior Automation Quality Assurance Engineer at SAP
- Pavel Zapolsky — Senior Quantitative Researcher, Exness
- Ilya Sergunin — Technical Lead, Avito
- Igor Volynets — Senior Automation Quality Assurance Engineer, Usetech
- Vlad Hambir — Principal Software Engineer
- Suleiman Dibirov — Senior Software Engineer
- Denis Laptov — Software QA Manager at EPAM
//Networking and Industry Engagement//
A key festival highlight was the Speed Dating sessions, where participants had the rare opportunity to engage in short, focused discussions with judges and invited industry experts. These sessions allowed developers to present their projects, seek guidance on overcoming technical challenges, and gain valuable insights into their career trajectories. Participants connected directly with key figures from top tech firms, receiving advice on skill development and career progression in the fast-evolving tech landscape.
Among the experts in attendance were leaders such as:
- Igor Aleksandrov — Co-founder & CTO, JetRockets
- Elena Morina — Founder & CEO, Ravenage Games
- Vladimir Boldyrev — Product Manager, ZoneSmart
- Kristina Novik — EdTech Coordinator, TeachEd
- Pavel Zapolsky — ML Researcher, Exness
- Vered Sheinman — Senior Automation Quality Assurance Engineer at SAP
- Denis Laptov — Software QA Manager at EPAM
- Natalia Loginova — Lead Software Engineer, Women in Tech
- Vlad Hambir — Principal Software Engineer (iOS)
- Suleiman Dibirov — Senior Software Engineer
- Sergey Opivalov — Senior Software Engineer
- Dmitrii Starikov — Lead Developer
//Impact and Broader Reach//
The festival offered more than just competitions and career advice. It created a collaborative space where developers, designers, and engineers could share ideas and improve their skills. Participants better understood AI technology and how to apply it practically. The AI Storytellers Hackathon especially set a new standard for innovation in content consumption, demonstrating how AI can transform our interaction with and understanding of information.
Hackathon Raptors, an international non-profit organization, continues to focus on using technology to address socially important issues. This year’s festival reaffirmed the organization’s commitment to responsible AI development and solving pressing digital challenges.
For additional information, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at: hello@raptors.dev
Let’s together transform the overwhelming flood of information into a curated, engaging, and enlightening experience.
AI_STORYTELLERS_//2024//
