A hackathon is a forum for programmers, during which specialists from various fields of software development collaboratively solve client tasks. This communication tool for both small and large businesses can undoubtedly be called the engine of innovation technologies and fresh digital solutions. Importantly, the client, based on the problems of their business, defines the task for the hackathon, while participants beforehand outline a strategy to solve the task most productively. To understand the privileges that hackathon participants receive, we suggest familiarizing yourself with the success story of the winning team in the 'Moscow Megalopolis' track during one of the largest online hackathons in the country, VirusHack.
VirusHack took place in May of this year. In the 'Moscow Megalopolis' track, organized by the Moscow Innovations Agency, 78 teams from 64 cities across Russia participated. Among the clients of the track were business giants such as ICQ New (Mail.ru Group), X5 Retail Group, SberCloud, Uma.Tech ('Gazprom-Media'), and 'Mobile Medical Technologies'. Out of 50 developed solutions, 15 were selected by clients for further development. Some specialists were offered job invitations from track partners at the end of the event. Each team working on a particular order demonstrated high professional competencies, experience, and knowledge. But, as they say, only the strongest prevailed.
One of the hackathon participants was the company TalkMart42, which previously worked on a virtual voice assistant project. Competing at the event under the team name Buckwheat42, they excelled at the task given by X5 Retail Group for developing an additional voice input function for contactless payment of purchases in the 'Pyatyorochka' supermarkets.
The project was developed using Python. The prototype is based on open-source speech-to-text technologies and a module for processing and analyzing the obtained text (Natural Language Understanding). Among the available libraries for converting voice to text, Kaldi was chosen as it operates quickly and provides relatively high recognition quality not only for Russian but also for a number of other languages.
To facilitate deployment and testing, the prototype was built using Docker technology. For each operation, this module identified user intents, extracted spoken product names, as well as barcodes, loyalty card numbers, coupons, and other related information. The function operated without internet access or external voice transformation services.
TalkMart42's CEO Sergey Chernov discusses what the company gained from participating in the VirusHack hackathon.
"We were already interested in voice assistants for e-grocery, but primarily focused on online scenarios. Thanks to the hackathon, we delved into the specifics of offline sales: we learned about issues like noise filtering in retail spaces, separating customer voices, recognizing speech without internet access under modest computational resources, and integrating voice control into the current user journey. This provided ideas for new use cases of voice assistants in retail," he stated.
TalkMart42 employees gained invaluable development experience under extreme conditions and subsequently began collaborating with one of the largest retailers in the country. Currently, they are discussing the details of launching a pilot project with X5 Retail Group.
According to Sergey Chernov, by winning the hackathon, TalkMart42 received the opportunities and resources to introduce new digital products to the Russian market and attract customers for them.
"Last month, the boom in voice assistants for online grocery ordering continued. The largest Indian retailer Flipkart, with a market capitalization of over $20 billion, launched a voice assistant, allowing customers to order deliveries in English, Hindi, and two other local languages. The European retailer Carrefour launched voice ordering through the app in France," he explained. "In the Russian retail market, there are currently no such cases, presenting a wonderful opportunity to outpace competitors."
TalkMart42 is currently piloting a voice assistant in Russian for processing online orders through mobile applications for major retail players, as well as utilizing skills for smart speakers, according to its CEO. Another area of focus for TalkMart42 is assisting offline retail in voice management of self-service kiosks and information terminals.
Sergey Chernov recommends his industry colleagues participate in hackathons. In his view, such events can be a valuable tool for business development, especially if the task has a specific customer ready to implement the winning team's solution into their business.
As the head of TalkMart42 points out, the obvious advantages of hackathons lie in providing objective evaluation (a nice presentation design and a multitude of development plans for a genuine customer are less appealing than well-written, functioning code and realistic integration plans), motivating full participation, and offering an overall understanding of the challenges faced by businesses.
"Using such a simple filtering criterion as 'a clear business customer with a clearly defined business problem' can help avoid poorly organized events with unclear commercial objectives. The ideal outcome is to turn your hackathon participation into a valuable business case with measurable benefits for the customer," he concluded.
From Sergey Chernov’s words, it becomes clear that hackathons are a ticket to life, new financial contracts, and serious growth prospects for emerging entrepreneurs; enhancing operations and seeking new talent for large businesses, ultimately improving service quality for us as clients.
It is noteworthy that one of the key organizers of hackathons in Moscow is the City Innovation Agency. Thanks to such events organized by the agency, many professionals have established communication and interaction not only with the large business community but also with municipal customers.
"We have successfully conducted offline hackathons such as Urban.Tech Moscow last year, and the 'Megapolis Moscow' track during the online hackathon VirusHack in May amidst the pandemic, among others. Ahead of us is the autumn online hackathon 'Leaders of Digital Transformation,' aimed at addressing the current challenges faced by urban structures, with substantial cash prizes for the winners and a 'refinement' program for the best solutions to be piloted in urban infrastructure," stated Maria Bogomolova, Deputy General Director of the Moscow Innovation Agency.
The application process for the new hackathon will start in August of this year. Detailed information about it will be available soon on the Moscow Innovation Agency's website.
Source: habr.com
