This yr’s Cisco Enterprise Networking Hackathon, held globally on October 11-12, was one other large success. The Hackathon has grown steadily over time as a result of it’s enjoyable, thrilling, inventive, and collaborative. This yr, engineers took the occasion tagline “Hackers Assemble!” to coronary heart and turned out in report numbers. Participation within the Hackathon has gone from 275 members in 2015 to this yr’s 1637 members from 17 totally different international locations, together with 37 college students from 23 universities globally. Final yr, the Hackathon was 100% digital; this yr over half of the members on 450 groups have been onsite at Cisco workplaces in america, India, Canada, Switzerland, and China.
Theme and Tracks
Mission concepts for the Hackathon, which was formally introduced in August by Ravi Chandra, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Networking at Cisco, started percolating for weeks earlier than the occasion. The theme this yr was “Multi-domain and Open Techniques” and engineers labored on quite a lot of ideas below 5 tracks (Determine 1).
Mission groups of two to 6 engineers collaborated beginning at 10:00 AM on Day 1. There was meals, snacks, t-shirts, trivia contests, raffles, and a way of pleasure within the air. On Day 2, every group offered their concepts to judges with slides and a pre-recorded video. Throughout the Hackathon, members might stroll across the cubicles inside their areas and see different tasks.
Winner Spotlights
Software program Engineer Josh Hampton, who works in San Jose on the SD-WAN product, joined a group engaged on a reporting dashboard for a lab-as-a-service (LaaS) idea. Testers don’t use devoted tools for testing on a regular basis. With LaaS, they reserve the time they should use the tools, decreasing testing assets wanted and power used.
For the hackathon, his group created a brand new LaaS dashboard that exhibits which people are utilizing which assets and particulars of their use for higher useful resource planning.
Working collaboratively and intensively on the Hackathon, “Individuals got here up with questions that I hadn’t considered initially,” stated Hampton. “We got here up with new concepts. The event went sooner and smoother than if we have been collaborating on it as soon as per week.”
Mingyi Huang, Software program Engineer on the Cisco IOS XE group specializing in reliable methods, was on a successful group of two on the Hackathon. “We had the thought to carry Safety Enhanced Linux, a coverage management entry mechanism, to IOS XE.” Builders can paste SE Linux denial of service messages into the instrument, and it generates coverage to supply entry to different software program processes on a router or swap.
Taking part within the Hackathon in Bengaluru, Take a look at Improvement Engineer on the SD-WAN group Rishab Jain discovered the time strain of the occasion exhilarating. “It’s important to be a bit of aggressive. It’s important to run quick. It’s possible you’ll have to be on name all day.” His group’s successful concept was a dashboard for an analytics resolution known as Third Eye. The instrument gathers essential knowledge from regression testing actions of particular person engineers and supplies insights into how testers and groups are performing. Previous to the Hackathon, the group collaborated with others inside Cisco Enterprise Networking to combine related regression testing knowledge. Throughout the Hackathon, they began constructing the dashboard and a video and slide deck to current to the judges.
The instrument now supplies 60 to 70 engineers on the SD-WAN regression testing group with suggestions on their relative effectivity. “We used to take 24 days to run 30,000 take a look at instances. Gathering this knowledge was a handbook course of. After Third Eye, we’re in a position to shut an 80,000-test cycle in 15-20 days. Our aim is seven days.”
Additionally based mostly in India, Premalatha A V, Technical Lead on the Catalyst 9600/9600x DevTest platform group, is now a two-time Hackathon winner. This yr, her group built-in QR codes on gadget consoles with hyperlinks to particular documentation. “Let’s say a buyer needs to implement ISSU, to know what improve is supported. The QR code hyperlinks to that specific documentation internet web page. Prospects can scan the QR code utilizing a handheld gadget, like a cellphone.” She credit the innovation with decreasing TAC instances and offering fast solutions to gadget questions.
Software program engineer Andrew Castelino is a brand new faculty recruit and has been at Cisco for simply three months, based mostly in San Jose. The group he joined labored on a sensible whiteboarding instrument known as ConfabAir which was one of many Hackathon award winners. “You flip in your digital camera and make gestures together with your arms within the air and the instrument attracts as for those who’re utilizing a pen on an precise whiteboard,” he stated. The know-how makes use of pc imaginative and prescient and a neural community, and the demo featured peer-to-peer connections. “The monitoring was a bit of shaky, however I did some interpolation to make it smoother.” Others on the group labored on networking, neural community, and internet interface. “It was actually enjoyable,” stated Castelino. “Individuals noticed us drawing within the air and gathered round us. I obtained an opportunity to satisfy with leaders in Enterprise Networking as effectively.”
Ben Astell, a developer on the Python Automated Take a look at Techniques group based mostly in Canada, joined Hackathon groups working within the cafeteria on the Ottawa workplace. His group’s successful innovation was a CLI to YANG translation instrument utilizing machine studying for a extra automated strategy to integration testing. “On the Hackathon, we carried out how the info could be collected throughout take a look at runs, the shim layer, and a proof-of-concept of the info modeler.” His group is happy concerning the potential for the answer to ultimately be out there to builders all over the place.
San Jose State College pupil Chaoron Lei was assigned to a group engaged on optimizing the message path in Catalyst 9000. He helped report assembly discussions, labored on the presentation slides, and requested numerous questions in preparation for the judging. “It was a completely new expertise for me,” he stated. “Regardless that the engineers are busy with their common jobs, they’d the fervour to work on a contest for 2 days. They actually love this trade.”
The Patentathon and Past
For some Hackathon winners, the journey continues.
In accordance with Sarang Samant, co-lead with Amit Nandy for the 2022 EN Hackathon, “Profitable concepts from the Hackathon, together with a listing of different concepts which can be highlighted by the tech sponsors and judges as doubtlessly good concepts, are shortlisted. Then a core group of principal engineers and distinguished engineers throughout all PINs in EN work with the groups to establish which concepts could be patented. Lastly, within the Patentathon, groups are guided by way of the patent submitting course of.”
Moreover, a gaggle of Hackathon winners might be supplied funding by way of the CTO’s workplace to pursue their concepts as their new day job.
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