Tecnun Celebrates the First Edition of IAthon: An Artificial Intelligence Hackathon

On January 28th and 29th, the EKINN facilities in Donostia were the venue for IAthon, a hackathon dedicated to artificial intelligence that brought together Degree and Master's Degree students from Tecnun. During this two-day event, participants worked in teams to develop algorithms, integrate generative AI models using the ChatGPT API and create Username interfaces, all under the guide of expert mentors.

Organized by Angel Rubioprofessor and researcher at the Tecnun's Computational Biology groupand in partnership with Fomento San SebastiánIAthon offered students the opportunity to solve a real challenge with the support of outstanding professionals such as Jon Pey (Quarizmi AdTech), Alberto Rezola (DATUA) y Ander Aramburu (CAF research and development).

The challenge consisted of developing an automatic report generator from data files such as Excel or CSV, using artificial intelligence to create documents with well labeled graphs and tables. In addition, the software developed had to be able to change the output format (HTML, PDF, Word or PowerPoint) and the language Spanish or English).

The winning team, formed by Lucas Martínez, Iván Piris, Alba Benito and Sofía Vallejoimpressed the jury with an agent-based model , in this case a program that interacts with its own report to improve it. "The other teams also presented very original solutions, which made the jury's decision difficult. It was an enriching experience for everyone," said Ángel Rubio.

Katyna Sada, one of the event coaches, commented: "This challenge really helped the students to understand how generative AI can be used to solve real problems. It was an excellent opportunity for them to learn and experiment with this technology".

IAthon not only provided technical knowledge, but also fostered work and creativity, reinforcing the connection between academia and the professional world.