Cloud, AI, IoT, VR, and 3D printing — all in one hackathon.

Insights into the Arctic Cloud Developer Challenge 2022.

In 2021, under Microsoft Most Valuable professional Day, I got challenged by Ulrikke to participate as Judes in the Arctic Cloud Developer Challange (ACDC) for 2022. A challenge I gladly accepted together with Cathrine, Harald, Lasse, and Ahmad.

Photo by Carlos Briceno

Caption from the website

This hackathon has been going on for over ten years, and happens every year at Voksenåsen hotel.

Photo by Jarle Engseth

The hackathon is about building solutions that will solve a fictive need inspired by the year’s theme — 2022 Ninja Turtles.

The event it is a place where like-minded IT professionals can engage in friendly competition without worrying about the mercantile challenges. Instead, you will rather be rewarded for helping others and sharing experiences and know-how.

You and your team will have to figure out what you want to create and what business needs your solution will solve. This way, you get to choose what you want to build and what tools and technology to use.

You will be able to set off time to learn new skills and technology.

It’s essential to be clear on what categories and badges you target and work towards. The categories are pretty much the same each year (Excellent User Experience, Most extreme Business Value, Rock Solid Geekness, Killer App). The badges vary from year to year and follow the trends and changes in technology.

Rules

You compete by getting the most badges. Every team can get all badges, and they must be claimed by writing blog posts where you explicitly write what badge you are claiming.

Most badges are about implementing a solution using a particular technology or framework. Additional badges can be achieved by showing good team spirit, or doing stupid things for fun. There’s room for interpretation, and it’s important to talk to the judges and know that you’ll get points for and not.

The five judges will give points for what they see during the event and judge all the teams by each category. Every day each judge can give each team point in each category. In addition, every day they award a team “Category winner” for each category, so it’s important to communicate, write blog posts and demonstrate your solution to the judges throughout the competition.

The judge’s tasks

The judge’s tasks in this hackathon is not only to judge but also to help and support the competing teams with the expertise the judge represents. So in my case, I helped, supported, and taught the teams about cloud security.

Time table during the days at the hackathon

Thursday
0800 Check-in and rigging
0900 Welcome and Keynote
1000 Teams presentation
1030 Challenge kick-off
1130 Early Delivery Deadline
1200 Lunch
1600 Jury Duty and Snacks
1900 Points and Crowns
1930 Dinner and SharePint

Friday
0800 Breakfast
1200 Lunch
1600 Jury Duty and Snacks
1700 5-kamp
1900 Points and Crowns
1930 Geekfood + Geekbeer

Saturday
0800 Breakfast
1200 Lunch
1600 Final Delivery and Demo
Clean out the room!
1700 Free time
1900 Meetup @ bar
1930 Challenge fine dinner and Awards
2230 ACDC party

Sunday
0800 Breakfast
1100 Latest checkout

The winner of ACDC 2022

Check out their solution https://acdc.blog/category/steria2022/

See this blog for more insights into the 2022 teams and solutions: https://acdc.blog/

See this page for more info about the event and as my reference/source of info: https://arcticclouddeveloperchallenge.net/#/home