Sleepless nights, endless debugging sessions, and gallons of caffeine. For Owen Corstens, a developer at Harmony working with Cordaan, the OutSystems Build for the Future Hackathon 2024 was a deep dive into the world of AI application development. Together with former colleague Nash, he built an innovative healthcare application in just seven days. "It was gruelling, but every minute was worthwhile," he says.
From Theory to Practice
"AI is often still theoretical," Owen explains, slightly tired but enthusiastic. "You read about it, you take training courses, but you ultimately learn the most by getting hands-on." He got this opportunity at the largest OutSystems hackathon to date, bringing together 330 developers from 17 countries.
During the day, Owen worked on his regular project at Cordaan; evenings were dedicated to the hackathon. "It was intense. Sometimes I was coding until two in the morning, only to get up hours later for my day job. But it was incredibly motivating to see how quickly we were progressing."
Technical Depth
The technical challenges were substantial. "We truly leveraged the full potential of OutSystems and the available AI services," Owen explains, listing the technologies used: "Azure Functions for image processing, Amazon Rekognition for facial recognition, MediaPipe Pose for body detection. We even built our own AI Agent using the OutSystems AI Agent Builder."
The team used ODC Forge components to accelerate development and implemented an event-driven architecture for real-time processing. "One of the coolest features is how we integrated speech recognition," Owen says. "Healthcare professionals can control the app via voice commands, which is crucial when you're being hands-on with patient care."
Lessons in AI Integration
The hackathon was a valuable learning experience. "I learned a great deal about practically implementing AI," Owen reflects. "For example, how to combine different AI services for better results, or how to use machine learning for preventative health checks."
A key insight was the balance between innovation and usability. "You can add all the AI bells and whistles, but ultimately it needs to work for the end-user," Owen says. "Our experience at Cordaan was invaluable in making these trade-offs."
Future Prospects for Harmony
Owen's participation in the hackathon means more than just a"competition" experience for Harmony. "I'm taking all this knowledge into future projects," he says. "We now have a blueprint for integrating various AI technologies into OutSystems applications. This is incredibly valuable for our clients."
The technical stack used is directly applicable to other projects:
- AI Agent Builder for creating custom AI agents
- Azure Cognitive Services for speech and text processing
- AWS services for advanced image recognition
- OutSystems ODC for fast, scalable application development
"We've demonstrated that you can build highly advanced AI applications with OutSystems," Owen says. "This opens doors for future innovations for all our clients."
Judging Continues
While the judging is still underway, Owen remains grounded. "Of course, winning would be fantastic, but that wasn't the focus," he says. The judges, comprising experts from Microsoft and AWS, are evaluating entries based on technical innovation (50% for AI applications), development efficiency (35%), and user interface (15%).
"We've built something we're proud of, and learned an incredible amount along the way. That knowledge is worth far more to Harmony than any prize."
A New Phase for Healthcare Innovation
The hackathon marks a new phase in Owen's development as a developer. "I'm now much more confident about implementing AI in our projects," he says. "We can offer clients like Cordaan even better solutions, based on real-world experience with these technologies."
His advice for other developers? "Dare to experiment. Yes, it takes time and energy, but the knowledge gained is invaluable. And with platforms like OutSystems, you can go from idea to working application faster than ever before."
