AI Hackathon + Meet & Greet

Saturday, July 13 was a TKS summer event to welcome new students attending the program next year. The hackathon was hosted at Platform Calgary. The event was welcome to parents and friends as well.

The event started off with meeting the co-founder of TKS Navid Nathoo, TKS Calgary Director Azar Chatur, and 2 of the TKS mentors.

We then went on with the event by looking at some of the new advancements and applications of AI in the real world. We saw multiple examples varying from AI tutors and seamless AI translators to realistic AI avatars and AI assisting blind people get through their day.

Our hackathon challenge was to come up with another use of AI in the real world and present it to everyone with one hour preparation. Because it was only a meet & greet, there wasn’t too much pressure on making it perfect and everyone had a good time. The parents even got to create their own AI in real life idea. We saw many different ideas varying from personal AI teachers in class, robot coal miners and drones, home declutterring, event planners, and AI-powered food scanners for microplastics.

Our group’s idea was to create a smart fridge powered by AI that would track your fridge inventory and expiration dates, create grocery lists, and provide you recipes. The reason for this idea is to prevent food waste and reduce impulse shopping. It also targets the general public rather than elite companies.

A few of us got a TKS hat, which was pretty cool. It was a great event to get a glimpse of what it will be like in TKS. I got to meet some great people and I’m looking forward to the start of the program in the fall.