ASSIST Tech Challenge 2024: Breaking Barriers Through Collaboration

The fourth edition of the ASSIST Tech Challenge brought together thirty teams of students for a competition focused on winning and improving programming skills. This year's theme revolved around developing a "Team Finder App" to facilitate collaboration and connections among team members and projects.

Aside from the competitive aspect, the opportunity to win a prize pool of 13,000 RON and internships at ASSIST Academy, the significant benefit of participating in the challenge was the practical experience gained.

The competition took place from February 23rd to March 22nd, providing students with a month-long opportunity to develop the given theme idea into functional prototypes. Throughout this period, students had support from experienced mentors at ASSIST Software, who helped them navigate various technologies and tools, overcome technical challenges, and build a solid foundation for their future careers. This year, we assigned more mentors to ensure each team received the individualized support they needed to excel.

 "It has been truly inspiring to see students overcome programming challenges and gain new knowledge through collaborative work. Once again, ASSIST Tech Challenge showed the leverage of mentorship and teamwork in fuelling innovation." - Marian Pînzariu, VP of Education at ASSIST Software

The Grand Final, held at "Ștefan cel Mare" University of Suceava, was a culmination of these collaborative efforts. A huge congratulations to all the winning teams:

• 1st place (5,000 RON): SimpleStack team
• 2nd place (3,000 RON): Error 404 team
• 3rd place (2,000 RON): The Pythoneers team
• Jury Award (1,000 RON): QuantumTrio team
• Individual Awards (500 RON each):
  • Back-end Hero: Andreea Dinco
  • Front-end Hero: Florin Camaruț
  • QA Hero: Ana Maria Scutar
  • Design Hero: Valeria Pavalache

From the very beginning, it was obvious that this year's competition would be a record-breaker. This 4th edition witnessed a substantial rise in participation numbers, with 30 teams eager to compete and win. Moreover, the collaboration with "Ștefan cel Mare" University of Suceava and the FIRESC Student Association notably contributed to the event's success. The growing engagement underlines the factual interest in the ASSIST Tech Challenge, as participants realize the competition is a great way to learn, develop skills, and gain hands-on software development experience.

The ASSIST Tech Challenge raises the bar each year, pushing students to tackle increasingly complex tasks. We were impressed with the dedication and adaptability of the participants. Seeing their ability to overcome obstacles and demonstrate a will to learn and adapt to the latest IT trends was a source of motivation.

The project requirements mirrored the real-world software development lifecycle, giving students a better understanding of the entire process – from conceptualizing to implementation, testing, and final presentation with a demo.

"I think we evolved a lot in those four weeks", said one of the ASSIST Tech Challenge participants.

The presentation stage unfolded over two days filled with adrenaline. Twenty-four teams made it to this round, presenting their prototypes after four weeks of intensive work. The judges noted the high quality of the projects and the significant improvements the students made in this process. The competition for the eight prizes was intense and rewarding.

At ASSIST Software, we believe that experienced mentors are essential to the professional development of our team members and students participating in the ASSIST Academy initiatives. We look forward to future editions to welcome a new wave of energetic students eager to learn and grow under the guidance of our professionals.

Congratulations once again to all participants for their hard work!