Extentia Hosts X24.2018 –Season 4 of its 24-Hour Annual Hackathon

Extentia Information Technology held the fourth season of X24.2018, a unique ‘Build Marathon’ centered around Data, Intelligence, and Experience (D.I.E.) over 24-hours recently. The theme this year was D.I.E. HARD – featuring real problems from real partners resulting in real solutions. Participants had to develop technology-based applications and go from concept to pitch in a tight timeframe.

Teams were presented with 6 (six) challenge Statements at X24.2018

Discover Your Zone – create a platform that enables users to look for retirement options while keeping several attributes in mind – cost of living, health care system, taxes, and more.

Ship It – businesses are required to ship items across the globe quickly – the high number of service providers makes it challenging to find the best deal. The aim was to create a platform that is an aggregator and offers an easy and efficient way for consumers to compare the offerings of available courier service providers, upload package details, and schedule pick-up and delivery.

Farmer Connect – availability of farm mechanization technology for small and medium landholding farmers provides them with products, services, and solutions to enable growth. The requirement was to create a platform that encourages farmer and customer engagement or bonding by taking inputs on the farming scenario and providing them with outputs specific to their location.

Waste to Fuel – to encourage, develop, and run efficient waste-to-energy programs, this platform will facilitate the collection, managing, and distribution of waste to recyclers.  It allows users to schedule pickups, make donations, and online payments to charities, as well as tie up with multiple plastic-to-fuel creators and charities.

Quick Buy – when traveling abroad, forex is essential, however, buying forex is a multi-step process that can be time-consuming and cumbersome. Hence the aim of this platform is to offer users with an easy but efficient option to buy online forex by enabling them to look or inquire for various currency exchange rates, buy multiple currencies, and more.

Raise It – there is a major need to get funding for start-ups by connecting them with interested parties. The aim of this platform is to serve as a collaboration channel between startups and investors. It should include features like – track funding at various stages, capture relevant attributes, and store historic information.

Every solution had to incorporate large data sets, featuring Artificial Intelligence with thought given to the customer experience. The participants had access to Extentia’s Techquarium’ (TQ) set of new-age technology devices and every challenge statement came with an attached device. These statements were shared with the teams half-hour prior to kick-off. They had to use cutting-edge technology and present their solutions to an evaluation and mentoring panel, combined with a sales pitch. X24 Season 4 presented Extentians with an opportunity to display D.I.E. HARD innovation, technological skills, creative flair, passion, and concepts.

The X24.2018 Gurus – judges from a variety of industry domains – met on August 25, to evaluate, vote, and pick the winners based on several assigned evaluation criteria. These included a working solution, coding best practices, presentation, and demonstration. This year’s judges included Vandana S. Poria, Serial Entrepreneur,  Don Tyson, Head of Business Intelligence Competency Center at Conduent, Harshad Joshi, Senior Director – Product Engineering at Fidelity National Information Service (FIS), Pradip Sitaram, Digital Visionary, Strategist, and Business Partner who actively shapes the future of digital in his firms.

At the awards ceremony, the Gurus spoke of how X24.2018 was the client-focused edition of X24 – this ensured that the teams were more focused, committed, and learned a lot from their peers. According to them, the final step would be to take the developed applications to fruition and complete the X24 circle.

The live feed of X24.2018 showcased photos, videos, hourly updates, and a busy comments section. The hackathon was also live-tweeted over 24-hours, along with updates on Facebook. Twitter posts were favorited and retweeted extensively using the hashtag ‘#HackathonX24’ and ‘#X24DIEHARD’.