Google Developers North America’s Post

🔥How I founded and organized one of Canada’s premier hackathons? 🌎 GenAI Genesis 2024, Canada's Largest AI Hackathon, happened last weekend in Toronto, attracting over 1200+ registrants and 250+ hackers from 11 countries. It was two days of learning cutting-edge Generative AI from Google's #BuildwithAI campaign, networking with brilliant minds in the tech industry, & developing projects focused on tackling the United Nations’ 17 SDG. 💡The idea came to me last year, when I realized among hundreds of hackathons in Canada, none focused on equipping the next generation of developers, students, with vital GenAI technologies. Nevertheless, I single handedly couldn’t accomplish such a grand plan. Thus, I founded my own club, the Google Developer Student Clubs - UTSC, and joined Canada’s leading AI student associations, UofT AI & University of Toronto Machine Intelligence Student Team (UTMIST), thereby uniting these three leaders. The journey further unfolded with 15 other student clubs & 6 universities joining as partners, assembling a team of over 100 executives with the same ambition. 🙌 Nonetheless, the hackathon wouldn’t have been possible without the unwavering support of these individuals: from Google: Junnet Ali, Naveen Nigam, Madusha Cooray, Aniedi Udo-Obong, Zviad Kardava; from Vector Institute: Daniel Roy & Arber Kacollja, MBA; from University of Toronto Scarborough: Neel Joshi (He/Him/His) & Gwendolyn Wang, CPA, CA, MBA, AvMP; from Academic Advising & Career Centre: Varsha Patel, & Wendy Szeto, MSW; from WOMBO.ai: Ben-Zion Benkhin; from Knockri | Skills based Hiring & Promotions :Faisal Ahmed; & from University of Toronto - Rotman School of Management: Rachel Reed & Fiona Duley. Thank you for being pillars that let GenAI Genesis withstand the flood of challenges. 🎉 Additionally, we welcomed an enthusiastic opening keynote from Google’s Naveen Nigam, cutting-edge workshops from Google Developers North America Experts: Allen S. Firstenberg & Glen Yu, a panel of women AI leaders with Suting Yang, Diana Virgovicova, Diana Moyano, MMAI, Yvonne Leung, Ph.D., & Santoshi Tadanki moderated by Aaliyah Jaleel, & a closing keynote from Vector Institute’s Claire Zhao. Thank you for the invaluable insights & knowledge you shared! 🧡 Joining the hackathon were 15 mentors dedicating their valuable weekend to guide the hackers, and 30 remarkable judges who brought their expertise to +66 showcased projects. Kudos to all of you & the best executive team on the planet for months of hard work. I will have other posts expanding these mentions! ✨ We made history last week. From hosting Canada’s largest AI Hackathon, to Canada's largest collaboration of student clubs, to the grandest student partnership between the Scarborough & St. George campuses in the University of Toronto. ☀ Let us embrace a better future by making a positive impact one step at a time and dream big, beyond the horizons of possibility. See you next year at GenAI Genesis 2025!