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It’s Sunday afternoon, and there’s a sense of accomplishment in the Offenburg Technology Park. Simon, Moritz, and Nicolas, three students from Offenburg University, are beaming after their success at the BlackForest Hackathon. The last 48 hours were packed with coding, little sleep, and a lot of teamwork.
The event kicked off on Friday afternoon. Nearly 100 motivated participants—including the three students—signed up to tackle hands-on challenges. But before diving into work, they raided the fridge and candy bar—after all, you need proper fuel for a coding marathon! "The catering was phenomenal throughout the weekend," Simon recalls. Alongside classics like currywurst with fries, there were delicious veggie dishes and, of course, plenty of donuts.
Simon, Moritz, and Nicolas quickly chose the BurdaSolutions challenge: to develop a tool using large language models to analyze social media comments and filter out hate speech.
The nights were short, but the motivation was high. "We worked straight through," says Nicolas. "It was so much fun, especially collaborating as a team," Moritz adds. The challenge of finding a solution in such a short time brought the trio even closer together.
"It was our first hackathon," Nicolas says. "Winning a prize on our first attempt has motivated us to come back next year."
Their efforts earned them the award for "Best Concept." In addition to a trophy, they took home prize money of €1,000. "We’re thrilled with the outcome and can’t wait to tackle other categories next year," Moritz jokes.
The BlackForest Hackathon may be small, but for Simon, Moritz, and Nicolas, it was a major success and an invaluable experience.
