Korea's First NPU Hackathon, Crafted with Content Production Skills and Operational Expertise

Korea’s First NPU Hackathon, Crafted with Content Production Skills and Operational Expertise

Have you heard about the latest buzz in the IT community, popularly referred to as a ‘hackathon’? This term merges ‘hacking’ and ‘marathon,’ characterizing an event where individuals from various disciplines—such as development, design, and planning—collaborate intensively to build a service in a constrained time. Hackathons offer a unique platform for direct engagement between participants and sponsoring organizations, facilitating superior brand exposure, promotional benefits, and the identification of exceptional talent.

Rapidly growing startup ‘FuriosaAI’ has also turned its attention to a hackathon tailored to its corporate characteristics. FuriosaAI is a semiconductor fabless startup specializing in designing high-performance NPUs (Neural Processing Units) optimized for deep learning.

▲ Furiosa AI

Many individuals, including AI engineers, have yet to explore FuriosaAI's NPU product, Warboy, and the underlying NPU technology itself. To raise awareness about NPU and encourage sharing experiences with 'Warboy,' we sought a breakthrough through a hackathon.

Thus, the first-ever domestic NPU-utilizing Vision AI development hackathon, ‘FURIOSA AI Hackathon,’ was launched. The theme was to experience domestic NPU technology and develop NPU-based AI services. Over 1,000 participants engaged in the competition, including preliminary training, qualifiers, and the final round held at Elice Lab.

A Large-scale Hackathon with 1,000 Participants: Meticulous Planning and Operation Based on Expertise

FuriosaAI teamed up with Elice for its inaugural hackathon. The decision was based on Elice’s accumulated expertise in operating hackathons. From planning to recruitment, execution, and establishing judging criteria, we could confidently entrust them with the entire process.

▲ The sequence of events for the FuriosaAI Hackathon

Diverging from the norm of typical hackathons, we designed a special pre-event SDK (Software Development Kit) education for participants, both online and offline. Understanding the importance of effectively using the novel NPU and ‘Warboy,’ this educational segment was specifically tailored to equip participants with the necessary skills.

Participants attended theoretical lectures online and had the opportunity, offline, to witness demonstrations by FuriosaAI engineers and engage in a Q&A session. This approach aimed to enhance participants’ understanding of NPU, ensuring a more meaningful hackathon experience.

Even with meticulous preparation, hackathons, given their offline nature, can encounter unexpected variables. Leveraging the expertise accumulated through numerous hackathons, Elice ensured the stable operation of the event. Many participants appreciated the attention to detail in event operations, including meals and provisions, catering to the constraints on participants who might face mobility challenges during the hackathon.

▲ FuriosaAI Hackathon Venue

An Enriched Hackathon Through Tailored Content Development

As it was a hackathon that required not only qualifiers but also pre-event education, content development was crucial to the on-site proceedings. Being the first-ever NPU hackathon in Korea, unprecedented attention to detail was necessary.

Leveraging the rich experience of the Elice content development team in creating educational and evaluative content, tailored theory and practical training materials were developed based on the materials provided by FuriosaAI. Elice also took charge of creating the qualifying round questions, including SDK quizzes, AI modeling, algorithm coding tests, aligning them with the respective positions.

Learning and AI Development Simultaneously with EliceLXP

While the final round takes place offline, a platform for pre-event education, practical training, and preliminary evaluations is also necessary. All these challenges were addressed using EliceLXP.



▲ Preliminary SDK Training for the Hackathon conducted on EliceLXP

EliceLXP hosted the pre-event educational materials and exercises, granting participants seamless access ahead of time. The platform further served for the online preliminary coding test, ensuring a consistent user experience.

FuriosaAI’s distinctive approach allowed each participant to gain practical experience with the ‘1 person 1 NPU’ policy. Through Jupyter Notebooks integrated into EliceLXP, participants could access detailed explanations and directly apply code for utilizing the Warboy chip, enabling a smooth and innovative learning experience.

The ability to utilize a single platform for all educational content and assessments proved particularly fitting for the hackathon format. Since hackathons typically span an extended period, maximizing convenience and maintaining participant engagement are crucial to prevent dropouts.

▲ EliceLXP’s Runbox Practice Interface

The final round of development was conducted on EliceLXP, housed within EliceCloud, where each team received dedicated GPU and NPU instance resources. Participants created their personal instances on EliceCloud, enabling straightforward server connections through Warboy, thus ensuring smooth access to the AI development environment.

Successful Hackathon Wrap-up! Creative Outputs and Participant Satisfaction

▲ Introduction of the Winning Project ‘Blur AI’

Teams reaching the final stage presented innovative solutions, demonstrating the vast possibilities within Vision AI technology. Noteworthy projects included ‘Blur AI,’ an interactive live streaming service that employs facial recognition to blur faces automatically, and ‘Chal-kak, Chal-kak (Click, Click),’ an AI service designed to automatically assess damages during the rental or return process of shared vehicles, showcasing the impactful applications of AI in everyday scenarios.

Creating a product within a limited time frame, especially without an in-depth understanding of NPU, posed challenges. However, participants expressed appreciation for the full-time support provided by engineers and organizers from both companies, enabling them to immerse themselves more effectively.

▲ Hackathon Review by Minseob Lee, HR Leader at FuriosaAI

FuriosaAI effectively promoted not only products like AI semiconductor chips but also its own brand through the innovative approach of a hackathon. Moving forward, Elice is committed to collaboratively creating successful hackathons by leveraging a stable platform and expertise in planning and operations.

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