Congratulations to Vanier Continuing Education Software Development students Shunzi Yao, Shaojun Jiang, Ana Pechonkin and Yao Wu, who won Third Place at the recent Bell Geekfest 2023 Hackathon held October 13 to 15th. This year, the Bell hackathon welcomed students and graduates from 19 Québec colleges and CEGEPS to put their software design talents to the test in a hybrid event combining virtual and in-person elements focused on the theme of Online Privacy and Security.
After a virtual kickoff where participants discovered the challenge set for them in the competition and explored Bell's graduate leadership and internship programs, the hackathon progressed to in-person sessions, presentations and technical mentorships by industry experts on day 2, and concluded with pitch clinics and app presentations before a panel of judges on day 3.
The winning Vanier team decided to tackle social engineering attacks and created PostGuardian, an innovative web application designed to assess the vulnerability of social media users to potential social engineering attacks. By harnessing the power of machine learning, the application evaluates user posts to provide an in-depth vulnerability analysis. The user is rated from low risk to high risk, with an assessment of what is unsafe and why, and recommendations of how the post can be modified to increase safety.
In all, more than 20 Vanier students from Computer Science Technology, Computer Science and Mathematics and the Continuing Education Software Development program, participated in the hackathon.
"I am very pleased with the success of the Vanier winning team that included both female and male students. I am always "pushing" our students to participate in these events and competitions and I send invitations to every computer science student in the various Vanier programs. This hackathon has definitely motivated many of them who will likely sign up for the upcoming McGill Hackathon in November," says Vanier computer science teacher, Alex Steinheuser Vilvert.
Besides winning such competitions, students often receive invitations for internships or possible employment. In fact, following the 2023 Geekfest, many of the Vanier participants were invited for interviews with Bell.
Congratulations to all the winners and good luck for future endeavours.
