Xiaomi Hackathon: 319 Participants Unveil 63 Innovative Tech Solutions

Xiaomi's 2024 Fifth Hackathon Concludes: A Celebration of Innovation and Collaboration

On July 9, Xiaomi Group's Technical Committee held the awards ceremony for the 2024 Fifth Hackathon, themed "Boundless Imagination, Everlasting Innovation," in Beijing, marking the successful conclusion of this year's innovation event. The competition featured a 48-hour in-person coding challenge, hosted at the main venue in Beijing and four regional locations in Wuhan, Nanjing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. A total of 319 engineers from 11 departments participated, resulting in the creation of 63 innovative technology projects and the submission of 31 patent applications, with record-high participation and cross-regional team formation.

During the award ceremony, Xiaomi Group Vice President and Technical Committee Chair, Qu Heng, highlighted that this hackathon was the largest yet. The influx of young talent and efficient cross-regional collaboration emerged as significant new trends. Additionally, all projects incorporated AI technologies, pushing the boundaries of innovation. Qu also mentioned that the company would provide more resources in the future to support exceptional ideas.

Wang Dong, General Manager of the Human Resources Department, emphasized Xiaomi's longstanding commitment to empowering young talent since its inception. The hackathon offers employees a platform for grassroots innovation. Over the past three years, 52 teams have participated, showcasing the growing enthusiasm of fresh graduates alongside seasoned professionals. Xiaomi's future generations will continue to face uncertainties with creativity and innovation.

Zhou Juejia, Director of the Technical Committee Office, described the hackathon as a historic breakthrough, noting record attendance and participation. She underscored that, as a technology company, the event serves as a vital platform for collective thinking and an opportunity for engineers to showcase their technical capabilities.

Of particular note, this hackathon marked the first partnership with Google Cloud, providing participants access to AI capabilities like Gemini and Vertex AI. Kathy Lee, Managing Director of Google Cloud Greater China, expressed her hopes for broader collaboration with Xiaomi to advance technological innovations.

The hackathon, centered around the theme "Boundless Imagination, Everlasting Innovation," urged participants to combine popular technologies like AI, 5G, and the Internet of Things with various ecological and public welfare scenarios. The live-streamed presentations showcased all teams' performances, with Xiaomi's technical team offering support in areas such as voice recognition, large models, and mobile computing.

The awards results revealed that the first-place project, "Smart Safety Helmet," focuses on enhancing cycling safety by integrating cutting-edge technologies such as fall detection, AR-HUD display, and voice synthesis. This aims to significantly reduce distractions for cyclists while enhancing their awareness of surroundings. The second-place project, "Xiaomi Universal Assistant," utilizes visual recognition and large language models to facilitate cross-application tasks. Third-place projects included "Multimodal Intelligent Care Pioneer" and "Smart Guardian," both focusing on personalized intelligent monitoring to enhance user privacy.

Also noteworthy was the "Life Archive" project that won the Best Popularity Award, setting a record for employee votes. This project integrates user data to create a personal digital avatar, allowing users to engage in dialogue with their past selves and showcasing the emotional depth of data.

In 2023, Xiaomi outlined ambitious goals for the next decade, planning substantial investments in core foundational technologies to establish itself as a global leader in hard tech. Currently, Xiaomi's R&D spans 12 fields, including 5G, big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, while making significant inroads into smart manufacturing and electric vehicles. Xiaomi's founder and CEO, Lei Jun, has consistently stressed that engineers are the company's most valuable assets and that every innovative idea deserves respect. Xiaomi's R&D investment for 2023 is expected to reach ¥24 billion, with its intellectual property portfolio continuously growing—surpassing 37,000 patents globally by the end of 2023.