What happened at CGM Hackathon 2024

June 13, 2024

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Let us share with you our incredible experience from this year's edition of CGM Hackathon, that took place between 7 and 8 June 2024: 2 days, 1 night, 4 teams, 15 participants, 6 organizers, unlimited coffee and one big prize: 2000 euro.

Everything started from Adrian Barna, VP on Software Development, who was very determined, like always, to organize an AI edition of the Hackathon. And, like always, he did an amazing job, supported by an awesome organizational team: Liviu Bulicanu (FrontEnd Developer and one of the winners of the last Hackathon), Alexandra Chircu (QA and Team Lead), Irina Costache (BackEnd Developer and Team Lead), Iulian Liță (FrontEnd Developer, Functional Lead on FrontEnd Community and one of the winners from the last Hackathon), and Andreea Marc (Head of Communication).

Organizational team — The Organizational Team: Iulian Liță, Irina Costache, Liviu Bulicanu, Alexandra Chircu, Adrian Barna, Andreea Marc

From the beginning of the discussion, I want to express my hope regarding this Hackathon: to initiate a large-scale project, coordinated by a team in Iași, that will influence all existing projects within CGM. The realism of this dream is not essential because without dreams, there are no achievements. I truly believe this is possible, as I am lucky enough to collaborate with an exceptional organizing team. Organizing this international Hackathon was not without challenges, given that it represents our first step in this direction, but this experience has brought us even closer together, solidifying the friendships already established. I am really proud of all the CGMers involved in this Hackathon, both organizers and participants, because it proved one more time that CGM Software Romania is really the center of expertise for software development in CGM and that together we can create the future of e-Health, through AI, great skills and our enormous passion

Adrian Barna, VP Software Development and the initiator of Hackathon 2024

The people and their objective

Four teams registered and competed for the big prize, but also for great vibe, people, and experience. Here are the four teams, in order of registration:

1. 𝟑𝐂𝐫𝐚𝐢: Anda Popovici (Java Developer), Denis Crusos (Kotlin/Java Developer), Silviu Pascariu (Angular/React Developer);

2. 𝐅𝐚𝐫-𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬: 3 FrontEnd Developers – Dragoș Burghelea, Robert Ciubotariu and Sebastian Boteanu (remote from Cluj-Napoca);

3. 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐞: Denis Iuga (FE/BE), Cătălina Gavril (FE), Adelina Mușat (FE/BE), Sergiu Miron (FE) and Sorin Veleșcu (QA/BE);

4. 𝐇𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐀𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤: Adrian Scripcariu (.NET Developer), Claudiu Guriță (Java Developer), Alexandru Păsăilă (.NET Developer) and George Augustin (Software Architect/FE Developer).

Their objective was to create a feedback application for customers who use CGM`s products, bringing awareness of customers' feelings to the next level.

The result: 4 applications that made us even prouder of our colleagues. The score was pretty tight, but, unfortunately, we had only one big prize – 2000 euro. And the winners were established by the jury committee: the organizational team plus Dr. Adnana Jaramani, specialist doctor in pediatric surgery, who came up with the doctor`s view on the feedback app.

Meet the winners

The winning team was 3Crai, formed by Anda, Denis and Silviu, and we are more than happy to present them to you.

Silviu (FrontEnd) and Denis (BackEnd) are colleagues on the same team, da Vinci, on the Pharmacy Project. Anda, BackEnd Developer on CLICKDOC Life NN, wanted really bad to participate in the Hackathon, but didn't have any partner. The organizers did the match and they immediately clicked, forming a connected team that happily won the competition.

Let's get to know each of them better and discover 3 more passionate CGMers from CGM Software Romania, the center of expertise for software development in CGM.

Anda Popovici (28 years old and 3 years in CGM) graduated from the Computer Science, and she has a Master`s degree in Computer Graphics and VR, in Bucharest. She has a big passion for drawing and anime, and you can see her nice creations on her Instagram page. In her free time, she likes to play video games, to watch series, to walk in nature and to learn. Besides drawing, of course.

Even if I didn't sleep at all, I still felt surprisingly energetic. I enjoyed collaborating and working together with this incredible team during the Hackathon. From the very first moment, we connected and collaborated seamlessly. The experience reminded me of my university years, with projects marked by the enthusiasm and passion of everyone involved and the intense focus and dedication that kept us working until sunrise. I think the experience alone was a genuine reward for all of us.

Anda Popovici, BackEnd Developer - winning team

Denis Crusos (34 years old and 5 years in CGM) is one of the biggest fans when it comes to AI topics. Even his dissertation focused on Machine Learning, and he is preparing an interactive new cool edition of ShareIT in October. On AI, of course. In his free time, he likes to play video games, watch movies and series, read Twitter content about AI and listen to podcasts about AI.

I've approached the Hackathon application with significantly more determination because I felt that this project was truly ours, and we could shape it as we desired. Participating in this event allowed us to adopt a fresh perspective; we stepped into the roles of Product Owners, designed our application and actively engaged with consumers by asking the right questions. I loved and appreciated all the freedom and the flexibility that we had, and we just enjoyed it as a team. I think that what made us the winners were several important things: research and preparation (we actually asked Roxana Crețu, our Senior HR Consultant, that delivers Feedback trainings, a lot of questions about the topic that helped us and that we actually implemented); a project skeleton to start with; little to no time was wasted on resolving conflicts; and the fun

Denis Crusos, BackEnd Developer - winning team

Silviu Pascariu (25 years old and 3 years in CGM) is very passionate about playing the electric guitar. He fell in love with it when he was 12 years old, when he saw a guitar at one of his friends. He received one from his parents and he started his musical journey. He even played solos at proms during high school, and he promised to delight us with his talent pretty soon. In his free time, besides playing electric guitar, he likes hiking and outdoor activities, but also listening to politics podcasts and watching series.

I`ve participated also in the last CGM Hackathon, but I liked this one so much more. We had much more time, more flexibility, more fun. I loved it because it allowed me to make a project with the technologies that I want to use. I felt so good in this team and with everything that we did together, that I was 100% positive that we would win

Silviu Pascariu, FrontEnd Developer - winning team

What's next?

Silviu was also the one who came up with the name of the team, 3Crai, being confident from the start that this team had something special. With the prize money, he is planning to buy himself a new bicycle and explore the outdoors. Anda will use the money to redecorate the house, while Denis will put the money into savings accounts, saying that he didn't participate for the money, so he wasn't expecting to win at all. In the end, after sleeping and recovering from the tiredness, they said that the experience was both intense and pleasant, scary and cool, and that they will definitely do it again next time.

We asked them if they are interested in organizing the Hackathon next time, but they said that they leave this task on us, because we did it flawlessly, and more than that, because they want to feel again that adrenaline as participants.

We are preparing now for a Bug Hunt competition in July, organized by Alexandra Chircu. Our QAs must form teams of two and find the bugs from the winning application. At the end of the day, the winning QA team will win 800 euro, besides another great experience.

Until then, we are not only recovering and preparing for the next year`s Hackathon, but we are also making big steps in implementing internationally the winning application. Of course, along with our dear CGMers, amazing passionate professionals who know how to have fun together and create cool things for humanity. Because any great event is made by its amazing people.