Cross-border hackathon attracts bright minds in AI and cyber security

Cross-border hackathon attracts bright minds in AI and cyber security

Students from Australia and Vietnam came together for RMIT University's first GenAI and Cyber Security Hackathon to tackle cutting-edge challenges.

The event was held simultaneously at RMIT's Melbourne, Saigon South, and Hanoi campuses from 8 to 10 November. It attracted more than 270 registrants from the host institution and 10 other prestigious universities, including the University of Melbourne, Vietnam National University in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, and Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology.

Participants during the hackathon at RMIT’s Saigon South campus Participants during the hackathon at RMIT’s Saigon South campus

The hackathon focused on addressing the cyber security concerns for adopting large language models (LLMs), which are becoming widespread globally thanks to tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini. According to the organisers, while cloud infrastructure provides the environment and resources necessary to run large language models, security concerns have arisen in this sphere, including DoS attacks on AI, social engineering attacks, data security breaches, and other threats.

Dr Robert Shen, Director of the RMIT AWS Cloud Supercomputing Hub (RMIT RACE Hub), said the cross-border hackathon aimed to address emerging challenges in AI deployment and security.

"As AI systems become more integrated into our daily lives, ensuring their security and trustworthiness is paramount," he said.

"This hackathon provided a unique platform for students to tackle real-world challenges in AI security, from setting up secure cloud infrastructure to detecting anomalies in web traffic."

A participating team from the Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology (PTIT) in Hanoi A participating team from the Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology (PTIT) in Hanoi

Teams had the chance to tackle three interconnected challenges, each designed to build upon the skills and knowledge developed in previous tasks. They included (1) deploying an OpenAI-like API (application programming interface) on the Amazon EC2 cloud computing platform, (2) implementing encryption and decryption in Python, and (3) fine-tuning AI models for binary classification of web traffic. A surprise fourth challenge tested the robustness of large language models through linguistic modifications.

Each challenge had specific objectives and unique evaluation criteria. None of the challenges were mandatory but completing as many as possible helped participants learn more and achieve a higher score.

Associate Professor Fengling Han, the hackathon’s initiator and Program Manager of the Bachelor of Cybersecurity at RMIT University, was impressed by the students' performance across all locations.

"The teams demonstrated excellent problem-solving skills and technical expertise," she said.

"What was particularly impressive was how quickly they responded to the challenges. In a short time, the students learned from the mocks prepared by the hackathon technical team, and then developed solutions that showed an understanding of both AI capabilities and cyber security principles."

Top teams from the hackathon in Ho Chi Minh City with organisers Top teams from the hackathon in Ho Chi Minh City with organisers

Participants were evaluated through an innovative combination of AI-powered assessment and human verification, ensuring comprehensive and fair judgement of their solutions.

The hackathon saw outstanding performances across all locations, with awards conferred to three teams in Melbourne, two teams in Ho Chi Minh City, and one team in Hanoi.

Team PetKulLeon from RMIT’s Melbourne campus claimed the overall top prize. Team Deadline-Haters, comprising three exchange students and one transfer student from RMIT Vietnam in Melbourne, secured the runner-up position.

Speaking about their experience, Le Nguyen My Chau from Deadline-Haters said it was a great opportunity to learn and get the concept of how a hackathon works as none of the team members had participated in one before.

“We major in Information Technology and Software Engineering, so participating in a hackathon will help us gain more knowledge about new technologies and trends in the industry too," Chau said.

“We did not expect to win a prize, but I think the key factor that helped us succeed is the fact that we worked and communicated well as a team and are all eager to learn."

Team Deadline-Haters comprises Lee Jae Sung, Nguyen The Bao Ngoc, Nguyen Ngoc Kim, and Le Nguyen My Chau. Team Deadline-Haters comprises Lee Jae Sung, Nguyen The Bao Ngoc, Nguyen Ngoc Kim, and Le Nguyen My Chau.

Other winners included AlThon from RMIT Melbourne, dahp and fintechbois from RMIT Saigon South, uscyber from the Ho Chi Minh City University of Science, and vilo2da from the Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology in Hanoi.

The success of this inaugural event has set a strong foundation for future cross-border collaborations in technology education, highlighting RMIT's commitment to fostering innovation in AI and cybersecurity across its global network.

The GenAI and Cyber Security Hackathon was organised by RMIT's School of Computing Technologies and RACE Hub, with collaboration from the School of Science, Engineering & Technology at RMIT Vietnam. The event was supported by Amazon Web Services (AWS), NAB, and De Heus.

Story: Ngoc Hoang

18 November 2024
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