The Hackathon Begins
Of course JH Medical was the kind of place that made my blood boil just by being mentioned.
And if I saw Kang Sangyoon here, strutting around while judging the event, that would only make it worse.
But I had no intention of letting a simple feeling like that cost us this competition.
This was one of the most well-known hackathons for university students in the country.
"It's also time we showed them what we're really capable of."
Our hackathon idea from my previous life had been merely decent.
I could barely remember what idea had even won us the prize.
We must have won because the final product was polished, not because the concept itself was extraordinary.
That probably explained why JH Medical had been so reluctant to provide any additional support.
And then, once we made something genuinely useful, they stole it.
They must have done it because they believed in our ability to build it in the first place.
"Ah. Calm down. This isn't the time to get angry."
I shook my head and headed into the club room.
Only Ha Juwon, our PM, and Yoo Jiwon, our UX/UI designer, were in there, eating delivery food.
"You're here?"
"You ate without waiting for me?"
"You always tell us to eat first anyway~"
"That's true."
Watching them eat delivery food with no worries at all, in a club room where not even everyone was gathered yet, I nodded to myself.
Right. This was how we used to prepare for hackathons.
Just picturing the others seeing the hackathon announcement in the group chat, thinking, "Yeah, sounds good," and then going home made me laugh.
It reminded me of how pure our preparation period had been in my previous life.
"Guys. What kind of thing should we bring to the hackathon?"
"Isn't a hackathon just about making whatever we can within the time limit? Is there any point in talking about it now?"
"There is. Now that we know the theme, we should at least decide what to make."
"I guess?"
We really were honest little engineers.
Since a hackathon was a competition where you made something within a fixed time, our only real thought had been to show up and build something then and there.
It was an attitude born of complacency and our own confidence.
But I had no intention of approaching this competition like that.
"There are so many teams that go into hackathons with upgraded versions of products they've already made."
"Really?"
"Of course. Researching the materials and checking the source takes a lot of time. If you try to do it all on the spot, it's brutally hard."
"Hmm. Everyone's kind of ruthless."
"What can you do? It's an open-book test. You're not going to take an exam without opening the textbook, are you?"
"Fair point."
"And if you look at the detailed announcement, it says pre-made prototypes are allowed too."
"Ah. That is true~"
I showed the others the hackathon poster image first.
The theme was simple.
[Technology to Reduce Healthcare Disparities in the 21st Century]
"Reduce healthcare disparities? Hmm."
"Should we make something for people living in the provinces?"
"Then maybe we should implement an app that lets people get treated remotely?"
"What are we supposed to make?"
Watching the club members think hard about it, I said firmly, "Let's make something tied to our business. That way, we can use the fact that we placed later on in marketing."
At that, everyone tilted their heads.
"We're making a product that checks dogs for lung cancer or pneumonia. Didn't you say we were short on money or something for a product involving humans?"
"Use the prize money for approval or clinical trials or something?"
"Oh, then what if we just swap the data for human lung X-rays in the existing product?"
"That would be easy enough, but wouldn't it feel too much like a straight copy and change? People might criticize it."
Bang.
Everyone was still talking in baffled tones when the club room door suddenly flew open.
It was Seonghun hyung.
He was breathing hard, so he must have rushed over.
"Am I too late?! "
"No, no. We're still eating."
"Then what about the meeting?"
"The meeting? We're discussing things."
As expected of Seonghun hyung.
I had thought he wouldn't come because he had no classes today, but he'd shown up for the hackathon planning meeting after all.
"I have an idea. Can I run it by you?"
"Yeah. Go ahead."
As soon as Seonghun hyung sat down, he handed us the printed materials he'd brought and said, "I think this could work."
His eyes were blazing, so he must have come up with something good.
And indeed, Seonghun hyung's idea was solid.
"Let's make an AI for human lung cancer, pneumonia, and tuberculosis screening. We'll update our existing algorithm. For human use."
"Tuberculosis, all of a sudden?"
"I wrote out why I added tuberculosis there. Want to take a look?"
The other club members read through the pages one by one, still looking confused.
Before I even opened the paper, I understood why Seonghun hyung had added tuberculosis.
It would be difficult to suddenly add more lesions right now, but three conditions seemed manageable.
"Finding image data will be pretty rough too. If it's human data."
"I'll work harder on that with Seonghun hyung."
Fortunately, everyone who read the material Seonghun hyung had prepared was convinced by his logic.
Thanks to that, I didn't need to prepare more materials or give a persuasive speech myself.
So this was the convenience of division of labor and specialization.
"Okay, then let's all give it our best!"
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The hackathon came around very quickly.
Almost as if they were determined not to give us any real preparation time.
"Wow. They even give us blankets and pillows."
"It's a one-night, two-day schedule."
"I'm nervous."
Since hackathons were competitions where you were expected to build a product, staying overnight was practically standard.
That was why this hackathon was also scheduled as a one-night, two-day event.
So the supplies handed out to participants included blankets and pillows.
"It would have been nice if our whole club could participate together. Right?"
"Nothing we can do. Teams can only have up to four people."
Since participation was limited to teams of four, we formed ours with three developers and one designer.
I was technically the planner, but plenty of planners also did development, so that was fine.
"Front-end or back-end, whoever is having a rougher time at the moment helps the other. Got it?"
"Got it. We're not the kind of people who dump work on each other."
"Let's do our best. We can win first place, seriously."
We had won before with a sloppy idea I could barely even remember, so there was no reason we couldn't win again this time.
I was confident.
As long as I didn't get emotional every time I saw Kang Sangyoon's face, that was.
Then we'd definitely win.
"Everyone, please take your seats and keep quiet."
Fortunately, the host was not Kang Sangyoon.
He'd probably only show his face again tomorrow during the results announcement and awards ceremony.
Thanks to that, I didn't have to worry about my emotions during the competition briefing, JH Medical's history presentation, or the networking session.
"Earlier during the networking session, I saw some people I recognized from the Informatics Olympiad, and others I'd seen at different competitions."
"It's fine. We're better than them."
"There are some really strong people here though."
"From everyone else's perspective, we're strong too. Korea University computer engineering scholarship students."
I calmly soothed the ones who were trembling.
After all, I knew we could beat all of them.
"Hey, I saw Ji Minhwan over there."
"Huh? What?"
But there was one thing that had changed from the past I knew.
Ji Minhwan participating in the hackathon.
"There's no way he'd be here."
"Exactly. Why is that slacker suddenly entering this? It's creepy."
No matter how much I dug through my memory, Ji Minhwan had never participated in this competition.
We only ran into each other again much later, during classes at school, not at an event like this.
The future had changed.
For whatever reason.
"Don't get scared. Just work hard. Got it?"
"We're worried he'll use his connections and place again."
"JH Medical isn't some corner store. They wouldn't do that."
I calmed them down and looked over at Ji Minhwan's team.
There was nothing special about them.
Ji Minhwan, and the little flies buzzing around Ji Minhwan. That was all.
"If anything, we're the ones with the advantage. We're building on a product that already satisfied two very demanding professors."
Only after my words did the others finally relax.
"All right, that concludes the explanation. I look forward to seeing everyone's great ideas. Fighting until 11 a.m. tomorrow!"
As soon as the host finished the briefing and a giant clock appeared on the screen, every hackathon team started hammering away at their laptops.
Everyone was beginning to pour out the things they'd already prepared.
We were the same.
With perfect division of labor and everyone knowing exactly what they had to do, our progress was naturally fast.
"If anyone wants help from the advisory panel, feel free to ask!"
There were all sorts of experts around to help the students, but we decided not to take any assistance.
Just building the product was already going to take all the time we had.
"Let's do a mid-check once dinner is served. For now, just focus on your own tasks."
"Yeah, yeah."
And so, in a stark, quiet atmosphere, we began to immerse ourselves in the work.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"That team over there hasn't even gotten up once, has it?"
"They aren't asking questions, they aren't going to the bathroom, and they only seem to pause long enough to eat."
"That's amazing. All four of them are that focused?"
All the advisors in every field looked at Kim Siwon's team with puzzled expressions.
A stubborn team that never budged, clinging to their project the entire time.
"Ah, aren't those the top six from Korea University computer engineering? That's what I heard."
"Sixth place?"
"The one doing design over there is sixth place. The rest are first, second, and third."
"Seriously? All four of them?"
"Yeah. I heard that from someone in that department. They're famous. Supposedly those geniuses always stick together."
Once people realized they were the geniuses of Korea University's computer engineering department, their eyes lit up.
It was endearing to see effort-driven geniuses who could focus like that.
"That team over there apparently has some backing from the father's side."
"Really? Then they're guaranteed to place."
"I heard they might get quite a few extra points."
"So that's why they all look so relaxed."
"Then those hardworking genius kids over there probably have to settle for second place."
"Who knows? Anyone can see that the other side is stronger, so maybe the ones with backing will end up second."
Ji Minhwan's team was overflowing with leisure.
Not because their idea was exceptional.
They just planned to implement a reasonably decent idea in a reasonably decent way, and, as the advisors said, they were relying on their connections.
Kim Siwon's team also understood perfectly well why Ji Minhwan's team was so full of confidence.
"Damn it, I really don't want to lose to that bastard."
"He didn't steal another idea from some professor, did he?"
"A competition this big probably isn't the kind of place they'd go that far."
Everyone on Kim Siwon's team grumbled in frustration, but Kim Siwon himself wasn't shaken by any of it.
"It's fine. We've prepared well."
He had memories of the healthcare industry from his previous life, the genius of his teammates, and an AI that backed them up so nothing slipped through the cracks.
"We're plenty favored too."