Two weeks ago, our data science team were a part of the Hackathon, organized by Swiss Financial Innovation Desk and Tenity, and presented a challenge in collaboration with Microsoft.
The event brought together over 200 enthusiastic participants from all over the world, including programmers, business experts, and tech enthusiasts. The hackathon was all about fostering innovation, collaboration, and a bit of fun.
The event kicked off with a series of challenge presentations. Participants had the chance to choose from a variety of intriguing problems posed by organizations like Julius Baer, PostFinance, XRP Ledger, and SIX.
Collaboration and mentorship were key components of the hackathon. Teams received ample support from mentors and representatives of the organizing companies. For instance, Microsoft teamed up with Unique to provide essential data and resources, ensuring that participants had everything they needed to tackle their challenges successfully.
The Microsoft Unique Challenge focused on helping data analysts manage large financial reports by automating the extraction of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from extensive documents. Julius Baer’s challenge aimed to identify fake phone calls in banking, providing a practical application for cybersecurity and fraud detection. Post Finance's challenge involved developing a system to automatically check APIs for reliability and security. The XRP Ledger challenge delved into blockchain technology in the crypto space, while the SIX challenge was related to ESG metrics, requiring participants to propose sustainable stocks automatically.
Several standout projects emerged from the hackathon. The winning project, Catalyst, developed a sophisticated solution for KPI creation and extraction, capable of generating new KPIs not originally present in the documents.
The hackathon offered valuable insights and learnings for the organizing team. The success of the challenges, especially the Microsoft/Unique Challenge, was largely due to thorough preparation and the availability of data and resources. On-site support also played a critical role.
Overall, the hackathon was a huge success, providing a platform for innovation, collaboration, and learning. The Unique Exchange team plans to build on these experiences to make their future hackathons even better, continuing to foster a culture of innovation and excellence.