Event Overview
IEEEXtreme 14.0, a 24-hour competitive global hackathon was held on 24th October 2020. IEEE Computer Society University of Moratuwa hosted the event for teams from University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka. Usually, IEEEXtreme is held on university premises; however, due to the prevailing situation in the country, participants had the privilege to code at home while being connected to their team members and proctor through video meetings.
Dr. Rasara Samarasinghe, Dr. Tharaka Samarasinghe, Prof. Ruwan Gopura, Ms. S.A.R. Kamalanayana, Mr. Kavinga Ekanayake and Dr. Uthayasanker Thayasivam acted as proctors for the event.
Vtools link : https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/246987
Committee for hosting the event for teams from University of Moratuwa
The competition was organized by a global IEEEXtreme organizing Committee. Organizing committee for hosting the even for teams from the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka, is mentioned below.
- Gimsara Kulathunga
- Chalani Ekanayake
- Samadhi Jauawardena
- Prabhanu Gunaweera
- Yasiru Lakshan
- Isuru Ariyarathne
- Nirosh Neminda
- Ganeeshamoorthy Abirame
- Nalin Sanjeewa
- Janith Gunawardhana
- Ridmi Kumarasinghe
- Afra Hussaindeen
- Nilma Peiris
Participation
73 teams from University of Moratuwa participated in IEEEXtreme 14.0 representing Sri Lanka.
Achievements
After 24-hours of intensive coding, five teams from Sri Lanka were able to secure ranks within the global top 100, where 3 of them are from University of Moratuwa.
- TeamNameUOM (World 57) – University of Moratuwa
- Codebreakers (World 77) – University of Moratuwa
- Ssss (World 100) – University of Moratuwa
As IEEE Computer Society University of Moratuwa, we are proud to say that out of top 100 ranks in Sri Lankan scoreboard, 51 ranks were secured by teams from University of Moratuwa.
Feedback for the event
“IEEEXtreme 14.0 was a whole new experience for us because it was the first coding competition that spanned for 24 hours straight, yet we managed to tackle the problems one by one and reach to the top 10 in the country at the end of the day” – Team KOS (Winner, MoraXtreme 5.0)
“It’s a good way to test your critical thinking skills against time. There were easy, medium and hard questions so everyone can choose depending on their skill level” – Team 404
Challenges we faced
We successfully organized MoraXtreme5.0 and hosted IEEEXtreme 14.0, but not without challenges.
- Given the pandemic situation in the country, we were unable to find sponsors for the events as most of the companies we reached for were in a difficult position financially.
- We conducted awareness sessions virtually to help competitors to improve their coding skills prior to IEEEXtreme. We faced some difficulties when it came to connectivity and coverage issues.
- We were unable to host IEEEXtreme in the university premises as planned because some areas in country were in lockdown. Due to this reason, competitors participated for the event at home while being connected to their team members and proctor through video meetings. Amid all these challenges, with the untiring efforts of the organizing committee, we were able to hold the events successfully.
