Students used modern workplace soft skills and collaborated in teams to solve real problems alongside AI
Thursday saw the wrap up of Day 2 of our inaugural Rosmini College AI Hackathon, and it was a fantastic conclusion to the event.
The morning began with an intense focus during the Build Sprint. It was great to watch the design process in action as teams tested and improved their ideas. Some groups even had to pivot their concepts once or twice until they settled on a stronger version of their product, which is exactly the kind of iteration and resilience we wanted to see.
While some boys worked on the backend tech to get their prototypes functioning, others focused on the user experience to ensure their design was clean and user friendly. At the same time, teams focused on honing their presentation skills to ensure their pitch was engaging and easy for the audience to understand within the four minute limit.
Throughout the day, the boys received constant input and guidance from our mentors, parents, the team from Genesis, and Prashant from Google. Having their wide expertise not only elevated the quality of the final products, but more importantly, it challenged the students' thinking and guided them through real world problem solving. This is exactly what the hackathon is about: boys using modern workplace soft skills and collaborating in teams to solve real problems alongside AI.
Our panel of judges provided fantastic feedback to the boys. A big thank you to Harsh Panchal (Genesis) for his understanding of the technical side, Kara Kennedy (AI Literacy Institute) for assessing the AI and community impact, and Talitha Pereira ((St Joseph's Parish) for bringing her perspective on youth, industry, and church alignment. We appreciate you giving up your time to judge the final pitches.
We presented two special individual awards on the day, thanks to RealTech for providing the prizes. These went to the junior and senior boys who best demonstrated leadership and the core values of the hackathon. Congratulations to our junior recipient Beau and our senior recipient Quinton.
Looking ahead, we will be taking our top three teams to the AI Forum Hackathon in August. We also encourage all of our participants to enter the Techtorium Hackathon in July, and above all, to keep that innovative mindset going
