DualHacks 2023 — A Recap!

This past week we hosted our highly anticipated virtual hackathon, DualHacks 2023. It was an action-packed 96 hours filled with innovation, creation, and fun. Over 500 students from 30 countries came together for this epic collaboration. Despite being fully remote, the energy was palpable throughout the event.

The speakers

The hackathon experience kicked off with inspiration and wisdom from our experienced speakers. Rajiv Chopra, Founder and CEO of RevStream (acquired by Aptitude Software in 2017), shared insights on ideation and building a successful product, encouraging participants to "Think big, start small, scale fast." Aditya Thiruvengadam, Founding Engineer at Klarity, dove into leveraging large language models to build powerful web apps, inspiring hackers to push boundaries with this futuristic tech. Khosraw Azizi, CTO at Codin, walked through his journey of launching a web app as a student, advising participants to always keep users top of mind during development. Alex Zhang, Founder at Perceptify, delivered a motivating talk on starting a company young, urging participants not to wait and to take action now. These leaders covered everything from conceptualizing ideas to executing them with the latest technology, setting the stage for an amazing event through their words of wisdom.

To help hackers unwind and connect with each other, we also hosted a lively game night session mid-hackathon. Participants could take a quick break from coding to play classic multiplayer games together. The games sparked new friendships and gave renewed energy to power through the rest of the event.

The winners

The winners blew us away with their phenomenal projects. For the advanced track, first place went to SpeakSquid which uses AI to elevate language learning through custom prompts and video exercises. GradeWithAI, which leverages GPT-4 for quick grading of assignments, came in second. And third place went to ReadingDojo which harnesses AI to generate dynamic reading comprehension questions.

For the beginner track, Serenity took first - it's a Chrome extension that controls speech speed and provides live transcripts for better lecture comprehension. In second was WizLink, connecting learners worldwide with experts for real-time guidance. And third place went to Ventura LMS, a powerful learning management system.

Finally, for the ideathon track, first prize went to HuddleUp which helps teachers equitably manage project-based learning. EnlightenU, a platform offering sex education resources, came in second. And third place was awarded to Uni-Tracker, which helps students keep track of college applications deadlines and essay progress.

The judges

The hackers presented their ingenious creations to our distinguished panel of judges, including Jake Nibley, VP at Tola Capital; Toby Oliver, CEO of Bravo Studio; and Jannie Affeld, VP of Finance Systems at Google. These experts thoroughly evaluated each project on dimensions like innovation, design, feasibility and presentation. They were incredibly impressed by what our young hackers built within just 96 hours.

The team

Pulling off DualHacks required monumental effort by our core team. Neil Sangra and Neal Chopra led as Event Leads, supported by our Event Team including Alexander Zhang, Sachin Khanna, Divit Purwar, Rebecca Xiong, Preetham Manapuri, Rohith Jeganathan, Afraz Amin, Aishwarya Santhosh, Khosraw Azizi, Saad Jadoon, Tanisha Shah, and Ethan Thornberg. We managed everything required behind the scenes, from marketing to logistics to prizes, to foster a community where future innovators could thrive. Hosting DualHacks is about much more than just our team; it's about empowering the next generation.

Wrap-up

By the numbers, DualHacks 2023 featured over 500 hackers from 30 countries competing for $200,000 in amazing prizes, with the support of 10+ top-tier sponsors and an unstoppable 96 hours of hacking. However, those impressive stats don't fully capture the connections made and lives impacted throughout the electric event.

We're extremely grateful to our phenomenal sponsors including Amazon, Desmos, Taskade, echo3D, Art of Problem Solving, Wolfram, 1Password, Interview Cake, Axure Software Solutions, XYZ, Leangap, and Certopus. Their support allowed us to provide hackers with cloud credits, cash prizes, swag, and some seriously cool tech tools that made the event extra memorable.

As we close out this epic edition of DualHacks, we're already dreaming bigger for the future. Our community has shown they can shake the world with their boundless potential. Stay tuned for details on our next hackathon! We can't wait to once again be amazed by our hackers. To all the DualHacks 2023 participants - thank you. Keep changing the game. This is only the beginning!