AI-Hackathon funda 2024 recap with three engineers

We just wrapped up the 14th edition of our hackathon with the theme 'Revolutionizing Real Estate: Cutting-Edge Innovations.' We recap the event with Software Engineers Connor Christensen, whose team won and organizers Fatih Cebeci and Melvin Zehl, who also participated.

About the hackathon, or hackafun

The goal of the 24-hour hackathon was to leap into the future of real estate by integrating cutting-edge technologies, particularly AI. Participants were encouraged to explore how advances could enhance the buying and selling experience for both consumers and real estate agents. The hackathon aimed to inspire participants to reshape funda's operations, potentially reinventing the way users search and engage with the platform.

For 24 hours, participants had the opportunity to bring their ideas to life. The great thing is that everyone at funda can join. It's not just about creating new features; innovative ways of working are equally welcome. Those without technical skills can also contribute by helping pitch the ideas.

In the end, there had to be awards, of course. There were seven up for grabs, and Connor, along with his team, won not one, but two of them. In the following Q&A, our winner Connor, along with Melvin and Fatih, share their experiences with us.

Which idea did you pitch?

Connor: 'The hackathon actually consisted of two ideas. In the last hackathon I participated in, my team came up with the idea of creating a calculator that would provide a comprehensive overview of the monthly costs of owning a listing on funda.'

'This year, my team brought back the same calculator, but this time we added a proof of concept for a sustainability calculator, which would offer an overview of sustainability subsidies available for individual homes from both national and local governments in the Netherlands.'

Melvin: 'Our team pitched "The Brochure 2.0", though that’s probably not the best name. The idea was to match the key highlights of a listing (extracted from the description uploaded by the real estate agent) with the corresponding images, using the ChatGPT API. The result would be a slideshow with a smooth sales pitch, narrated by an actual voice using text-to-speech technology.'

Fatih: 'Our team analyzed customer reviews using AI tools to implement language detection, sentiment analysis and opinion mining. Our goal was to better understand customer feedback and provide actionable insights to improve real estate agents’ services.

What challenges did you encounter while working on your idea?

Connor: 'Our idea came about because I had contacts in the sustainability department of the Rotterdam municipality, who informed me of existing information sources for sustainability subsidies offered by the Dutch government. Ideally, I would provide some details on a listing, and their data source would return a list of eligible subsidies. Unfortunately, the company managing that data didn't grant me access before the hackathon, so our team had to come up with some of the information ourselves. My teammate, Tom Freijsen, did a great job of creating a small data source that provided some eligible subsidies for a listing, but the number of subsidies was quite limited in comparison.'

'Our biggest challenge was fitting everything into the allotted three minutes for the presentation, especially since we accomplished so much in the 24 hours.'

Melvin: 'For us, the biggest challenge we encountered was the processing time of this new feature, which made total sense and wasn’t unexpected. Analyzing every single image uploaded with a listing takes a lot of time, so we had to tweak things a bit to ensure we had a demonstrable feature for the presentations (which also had limited time). Of course, we know how to tackle this if it ever goes into production.'

Fatih: 'The biggest challenge was the limited time available during the hackathon. We had to complete the entire analysis, ensure the results were accurate enough for production, and iterate through trial and error to refine the quality. Additionally, the challenge wasn’t just conducting the analysis—we also needed to integrate the results into a customer-facing product.'

Which idea won?

Connor: 'Our team won both the People’s Choice Award (the most important, as it’s voted on by all our colleagues) and the Ship It to Space Award, given to the idea that should be shipped to production as soon as possible. While I believe all the awards are equally important, the two we won show that this project resonated most with the people at funda.'

Here’s a picture of the team's idea in practice, showing how it should be displayed once it’s in production. It looks pretty cool, doesn’t it?

Fatih: 'In my opinion, every idea presented was valuable. There are no losers in a collaborative event like this, but some ideas definitely stood out. Personally, I liked the "Intelligent Search" idea, which involved integrating AI tools into the search functionality. It’s a promising concept with real potential.'

Some of the ideas from previous Hackafun editions were actually implemented, like the iPad app and the office planner. Which ideas from this edition do you think are likely to be implemented?

Connor: 'I hope that with the enthusiastic reaction to our project, and winning the "Ship It To Space" award, that this will give our team's project the best chance at being available.'

Fatih: 'It’s very likely that some of the AI-related ideas for enhancing search functionality will be implemented. The use of AI in search has clear potential to improve the user experience.'

Melvin: 'I won’t reveal which ideas will actually be implemented just yet, but keep your eyes open to discover the new features yourself. 😉'

And Melvin and Fatih, do you think your ideas are likely to be implemented?

Melvin: 'Well, yes, I do think my idea has some useful elements, especially in terms of accessibility. The descriptions of the images were often spot-on.'

Fatih: 'Possibly, yes. The analysis we conducted could enhance broker visibility and help brokers highlight their strongest skills, potentially making the platform more valuable for both brokers and users.'

What was special, fun or unique about this hackathon?

Connor: 'I thought it was really interesting to have contact with the Dutch government while preparing for this project. I actually thought this would be the element that set our project apart, but we ended up doing so much that we barely touched on that aspect during the presentation.'

Melvin: 'There was so much to enjoy. Seeing everyone rush off after the kick-off to gather with their teams and start working on their ideas felt pretty special to me.'

Fatih: 'Albert’s demo was my favourite part. He showcased an AI-driven search using a chatbot, where users could simply describe what they were looking for in natural language, and the AI would convert this input into search criteria. It was a simple, fast and effective demonstration of how AI can improve our listing search functionality.'

What made participating in this hackathon so much fun?

Connor: 'The same thing that makes working at funda so much fun—the friendly co-workers!'

Melvin: 'The enthusiasm and dedication of everyone involved. It’s contagious!'

Fatih: 'It’s refreshing to work on something different from our day-to-day tasks, which makes it enjoyable and stimulating. The competitive aspect of pitching your idea and aiming for a prize added excitement. Most importantly, the hackathon offered a chance to develop new skills and stay up to date with the latest technology trends.'

And for the final question, did it turn into a late-night session?

Connor: 'About half of our team set aside some time during the workday, but a few of us stayed after work. The last person from our team left the office around 11.30pm.'

Fatih: 'Not too much—it wasn’t as late as you might expect. We finished around midnight, which, for us developers, doesn’t really count as staying up late.'

Melvin: 'Kind of, but that was mostly because of playing with new, exciting technology and curiosity. I even ended up doing some coding in bed!'

Take a look at some highlights from the Hackafun at funda 2024.

Question?
Do you have a burning question for Connor, Fatih or Melvin after reading this blog? Feel free to reach out to them via email.