The NTNU student organization BRAIN hosted their fifth consecutive Hackathon this weekend, with this year’s event being sponsored by Nornir.
The hackathon was a great opportunity for students to get access to Nornir HIVE and for Nornir to stress-test the platform – as the students were given free reins.
BRAIN NTNU’s 5th Hackathon
BRAIN NTNU is a student organization at NTNU, consisting of students from across the university’s tech programs. For the last four years the organization has hosted Hackathons in close collaboration with Norwegian Open AI Lab. This year Nornir joined the mix and sponsored the 2023 event.
Nornir would like to thank BRAIN NTNU for the invitation to partake in the event, and congratulate the Hackathon project team with a very well executed hackathon.
Hats off to Oda Lilleøkdal, Ane Solbakken-Melleby, Tuva Westad and project manager Adam Sioud!
You can read more about BRAIN NTNU here.
Task at hand: Anything goes!
The participants were given a task which was as simple as it was daunting, basically “create whatever you want using the HIVE!”
After being divided into groups and sitting through an initial introduction of the HIVE, the students were given free reins and left to their own devices. Quite literally, as they were encouraged to bring their own smart (and dumb) devices to include in their solution. Each group was also provided with a Nornir Developer Kit to use as they pleased.
A team of Nornir developers were standing by to give a lending hand whenever needed and collaboration between the different groups and solutions was encouraged.
DDOS attacks and Energy drinks
In true hackathon spirit there was an abundance of energy drinks, lack of sleep, some chaotic last hours and a couple of obligatory DDOS attacks – none of which haltered the HIVE or students in coming up with some great solutions!
Having never worked with the HIVE before, the students were still able to come up with creative ideas and working prototypes using the HIVE, all within 24 hours! Furthermore, the HIVE allowed the students to create protocol agnostic solutions, relying purely on real-time data, eliminating the need for caching and API’s. As a result, none of the groups felt the need to implement the likes of databases, Azure or MQTT in their solutions.
Winners and Runners-up
There were several great ideas on show during the hackathon, with two teams taking home cash prizes for their efforts.
App to locate available and quiet places to study at NTNU
Taking home first place was a solution that monitored the availability and noise level of group rooms and study halls at NTNU’s campus. Thus enabling the end user to effectively locate an appropriate place to study without having to physically validate each option beforehand. The service included an IoT network with microcontrollers, computers, AI-driven web cams and an app for the end user. A great solution to a real world problem students face daily.
Congratulations to Jakob Kessler, Jon Magnus Mathisen Lauvrak, Erling Syversveen Lie, Karin Syversveen Lie, Gunnar Skålheim og Magne Tenstad!
Open-source data sharing and machine learning in real-time
“Your data, your choice” was the slogan of the solution that took second place. The runners-up created an open-source application that facilitated the sharing of real-time data between vendors. Furthermore, their platform enabled vendors to allow others’ algorithms to be trained on their data sets, without revealing the contents of the data to the latter. A solution in true Nornir spirit, focusing on real-time data communication and data privacy.
Congratulations to Magnus Giverin, Mathias Huse and Eskil Ruud-Larsen!
Nornir CEO & Head of engineering impressed with students
"Anyone who has ever participated in a Hackathon knows how difficult and daunting it is to create a solution and give a live demo of a prototype on stage. This is a great demonstration of both the HIVE’s capabilities and the ingenuity and skill of the participants!
“I am impressed with the students’ ingenuity, and even more so by the ideas and solutions presented on stage. It was inspiring walking around and seeing our HIVE in the hands of the participants, watching as their ideas went from concepts to prototypes.”
