Couchbase a Key Technology at the Nordic Software AI Hackathon

Engaging with great developers to build adaptive applications

Couchbase is a major tech partner with Cillers as they run hackathons in the Nordics and beyond. On August 20th we participated in the Nordic Software AI Hackathon, with around 100 developers who formed into teams to build modern scheduling applications.

Cillers started hackathons to give developers an opportunity to familiarize themselves and engage hands-on with game-changing technology used by some of the world’s biggest and best software teams to build better systems faster. Their wish is for participants to have a great learning experience full of inspiration, insights and networking.

Setting the scene

It was a sunny day in Stockholm, and the participants turned up early to be personally greeted by Peder and Per from Cillers. The venue was Waterfront Congress Centre in the heart of Stockholm, and the event was co-housed with the Nordics Software Summit. After being directed upstairs, they were greeted with some breakfast sandwiches and fresh coffee. Some came already organized into teams, others found their teammates on the day.

With a brief introduction and little fuss, the coding began. How did this happen? There were two reasons:

1. 1. The challenge was sent out two weeks before. The teams had to build work scheduling apps that had AI features.
   2. Cillers has partnered with Couchbase, Redpanda, Kong, Curity and Polytope to build a turn-key platform that makes it easy to build a production ready MVP without having to spend so much time on complex, generic infrastructure. This was all setup on their laptops.

The stakes were high! The prize for the winning team was to embark on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure to Silicon Valley with visits to Stanford University, AI Labs and Robotics Lab, along with meet and greets with tech giants such as Google and Meta.

Hacking on the day

We met developers from Volvo Cars, Klarna, Ericsson, Swedbank, H&M Group, Husqvarna Group, and many other companies big and small. Most were based in the greater Stockholm area, and some from beyond even coming in from other countries! From early on, it was difficult to find a free power socket in the room which is always a good sign. The developers were heads down, not distracted by the great view outside which included City Hall where the Nobel Prize Ceremony takes place.

Coding went on from 9am-3pm with a short break for lunch. There were technical resources on site to help unblock issues that arose. This included a Solutions Engineer from Couchbase. Participants found interacting with the database and services intuitive. The main issues that arose were around queries such as how to query nested arrays, and get data out of joins. SQL++ to the rescue. 

And the winner is…

In short, everyone’s a winner for turning up on the day and devoting their time to build innovative apps. Yet there could only be one grand prize winner, and with the work done the next phase was judging. Teams had two, yes two, minutes only to demo and pitch their app to the jury that was made up of sponsor reps and local tech leaders. The energy was elevated, and one by one the teams all did a great job presenting the work they did. 

They built innovative ways to interact with scheduling using AI, whether by using Gen AI chatbots or auto-generated schedules based on team availability, skills, and other inputs. After the pitch the jury gathered to evaluate the applications and discuss the pitches. It was a difficult decision, however they had to narrow it down to two teams in preparation for the final stage.

And what a stage that was! That winner would ultimately be decided by the wider audience in the main auditorium of the Nordics Software Summit. The two final teams were given a short time to polish their demos, and then we all piled into the main theater to watch as they presented to the full room.

After the presentations, the winning team was chosen via the conference app. With great fanfare and music the winner was chosen and that was a wrap for the day. Congratulations to the winning team, and all participants for helping make the day a great success.

Our commitment to developers

Hackathons like this align perfectly with the experience we are trying to bring to software developers globally. With Couchbase Capella, our SDKs and integrations, and our broadening range of developer tools it has never been a better time to build applications with us.

Whether you are using Couchbase already or new to the platform, we encourage you to take the next steps and explore more. We recommend the following:

• • Visit the Couchbase Developer Portal for tutorials, architecture guides, persona profiles, and much more
  • Join our growing Discord community
  • Find a Meetup group near you to see us live, and join the virtual meetup group for opportunities to engage with us online

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