STCET Kolkata Prevails At TVS Credit E.P.I.C IT Challenge Season 4

“Don’t limit your challenges; challenge your limits. Each day we must strive for constant and never-ending improvement” - Tony Robbins

TVS Credit E.P.I.C Challenge Season 4 embodied the spirit behind this quote and came back this year with an exciting challenge for the top talent in the nation. At the helm of the competition was TVS Credit a part of the TVS Group, one of India’s most respected companies. The challenge consisted of four different tracks- Strategy Challenge, Finance Challenge, Analytics Challenge, and IT Challenge. With PPI opportunities for summer internship programme and MT programme, along with exciting cash prizes up for grabs, throngs of students came forth to put their learnings to use and showcase their skills. In this article, the winners of the TVS Credit E.P.I.C IT Challenge share insights from their competition journey.

The TVS Credit E.P.I.C IT Challenge was open for B.Tech/B.E students from 3rd and 4th year, M.E./M.Tech students and MBA (IT), BCA/MCA students. It garnered 4,42,056 impressions and 17,901 registrations from across the nation. We- Nabarun Kar and Sounav Saha, are students from the St. Thomas College of Engineering and Technology, Kolkata, and we called ourselves Team BugCurse. We were super zealous to be a part of this competition and it feels great to have won the national winner title. 

Competition Structure

We have been a part of many hackathons before, but the organization of this competition was over and above every one of them. The problem statements were also great, they were brief yet comprehensive and most importantly industry-oriented. While working on the solution, we felt a clear sense of purpose and belief that it was going to solve a real-world problem once sorted. The flow of the competition was:

Round 1: Online Quiz
Round 2: Coding Challenge
Round 3: Case Study Challenge
Round 4: Grand Finale

All the rounds were organized very efficiently and progressing through each one, left us excited for the next round. We were thrilled when we reached the final round after multiple long nights. On the day of the finale, the judges and coordinators did a superb job. They made sure that everything went smoothly and the organizers made us feel completely at ease. We cannot be more grateful to the TVS Credit team for organizing a large-scale competition this effectively.

Also read: Upcoming Hackathons 2022 Every Engineering Student Must Know! 

The Winning Strategy for TVS Credit E.P.I.C IT Challenge

Our strategy was to keep the solution simple initially, use that to build a strong foundation for the solution, and then add features one after the other to make it whole.

• We had a few initial brainstorming sessions on Miro to come up with possible solutions to the problem. we went through all possible solutions and make an exhaustive list.
• After laying out the possible solutions, we considered the feasibility of each one of them, before spending any more time on developing them.
• We then presented the solution to people whom we felt were faced with the problem in the industry to assess their response.
• After taking their valuable suggestions and feedback, we narrowed down the one solution we had enough conviction in.

We spent close to a month working on the implementation. The most challenging aspect of the project was fixing countless unanticipated errors that surfaced whilst we were adding features to our initial solution. Every time we managed to patch things up, we were left with an immense sense of satisfaction. It gave us the kick of motivation needed to keep marching ahead with our work.

Winning Qualities

Success in such competitions can be attributed to some essential qualities that help you maximize productivity and efficiency. According to us, the qualities/ skills that helped us win the challenge are-

Time Management: One great thing about our team was the fact that we always managed to make time to work on the problem irrespective of our busy schedules. We are in the final year of Engineering, it's always really hectic and stressful with the hunt for job opportunities and studies going on side by side. But we gave this competition due importance and managed to carve our schedule to fit its requirements. We think that time management skills are imperative to participating in such competitions and giving it your best winning shot. 

Never give up attitude: We faced countless unanticipated errors but we never gave up or thought about not implementing a feature just because we were being riddled with errors. We sat down to figure the issue out, and thanks to the internet and open source community, we always managed to find a solution to every problem we encountered.

Know when to move on: We were both very prompt in searching for alternate approaches when something specific did not work as anticipated. Minimizing the time spent on fixing errors was our priority - this enabled us to expend our efforts on arriving at a finished product as soon as possible. 

Divide and conquer: We meticulously divided the tasks between ourselves, so both of us had very clear-cut roles in the project. We also rehearsed multiple times before the finale which resulted in our presentation being deft and well-liked by the judges.

Also read: Boosting Career Opportunities For Engineers Through E-School Competitions

Disagreements Are Inevitable

We have known each other since high school and are completely in sync, which is why there were hardly any conflicts between us. However, we cannot say it was all smooth sailing. We have collaborated on multiple other projects, but this was the first-ever high stake collaboration. So we did have some differences of opinions, and in those situations, one of us used to present his thought process with reasoning, while the other listened patiently. This way we figured out a mid-way and kept our focus on the end goal- the winner’s trophy.

Things We Learned

The competition was full of opportunities to learn. From the problem statement and possible solutions to competing teams, we learned something from everyone. In fact, many teams had worked on a problem statement that we felt was quite challenging. We closely observed them when they were presenting and we must admit that it requires remarkable grit to come up with such impressive solutions. The most important lessons we have garnered during this competition are:

• Believe in yourself, have faith in your skills, and don’t get daunted by the tags and reputation of your competitors. 
• The goal is to perform to the best of your abilities and not fret about things that are not in your hand. Ultimately it's the skills that matter, not the tag.
• Collaborative work and being receptive to the feedback/ opinions your teammate offer is extremely important.
• One of the best ways to solve problems and conflicts is to have mutual discussions and rely on data and facts. 

As mentioned, we have known each other since high school and now we are in the same college. This was not our first time working together on something - the synergy we have over time developed empowered us to work effectively. This was an immersive experience that taught us amazing lessons, things that will help us in our future endeavors.

How Our Presentation Helped Us Win

There were about 15 teams that made it to the finale and most of them were from prestigious tier-1, and tier-2 colleges. Meaning, we were expecting the competition to be tough, and boy tough it was! But we held our own and proved our mettle. 

On the day of the final presentation to the jury, we were of the perception that teams that worked on the problem statements in the Machine Learning domain might just have an edge over us. That's because ours was simply a well-thought-out and put-together web-based solution involving simple but accurate design principles and structure. But I think it was the way we presented our solution, in 8 minutes, demonstrating all our features in a short and crisp yet elaborate manner which ultimately paved the way for us to the prize. We believe your presentation is one of the most important aspects of these competitions. You might have the best solution to the problem statement, but till the time you convey it properly and make it click for the jury, all your efforts might just be in vain. 

The Final Moments

One of the most special moments during the TVS Credit E.P.I.C IT Challenge was when we finally accomplished our goal to make an application that solves a real-life problem and has the potential to be scaled up and implemented in the industry. It gave us immense satisfaction to be able to impact the work lives of multiple people and make things easier for them. We will forever remember the things we did and the lessons we learned during this competition.

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