Finding success far from home

A team of students from the School of Computing in the Faculty of Arts and Science travelled to China and earned first place in the international Chengdu80 FinTech Hackathon, held at the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE) in China.

The Data Queens team consisting of Xiaomin Cheng, Adam Clarkes, Chloe Houvardas, Vinicius Porfirio Purgato, Nolan Ling, and Amr Zaki and faculty leaders Professor Wendy Powley and Dr. Yuanzhu Chen travelled for more than 30 hours to Chengdu, China to attend the event.

The team of four undergraduate students and two graduate students were among eight teams of students from Canada, United States, Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, and China Mainland invited to participate in the FinTech Hackathon event.

The competing teams were asked to produce a prototype to solve problems arising from autonomous vehicles for a hypothesized insurance company. After 80 hours of design and development, Data Queens placed first and received the event's Trailblazer's Award and $7,800 in prize money.

“The students on the team did not know one another prior to this trip but they formed a deep bond and worked very well together,” says Professor Powley. “They are all super-intelligent individuals and most have done hackathons or participated in events like this before. The team’s approach was ‘work hard, but let’s have fun’ and they embraced everything about the experience. It was clear that they were loved by all the volunteers and were viewed as the fun team. They split their 80 hours between the project and enjoying being in a new culture, a new city and took it all in.”

Professor Powley adds this was an opportunity of a lifetime for the students. “The trip was fully funded by the host university allowing them to experience another country, spend time at a Chinese university, network with students from 20 different countries while proudly representing Queen’s University on an international stage. Not only should the team be proud, but Queen’s should be incredibly proud to have been represented by an outstanding group of students who demonstrated excellence as well as maturity, warmth, playfulness, and gratitude. My eyes were filled with tears when they did an oil thigh on stage when presented with their award. I am due to retire next term, and this is how I will remember Queen’s students – full of life and spirit and embracing the experience.”

Amr Zaki was one of the students that travelled to China for the event. He said his decision to attend the event was motivated by his love for technology and desire to step out of his comfort zone to learn about financial technologies.

“The competition was tough, with teams from renowned universities worldwide,” Zaki says. “One thing that stood out was how no two teams approached the problems with the same ideas. Within our own team, the discussions introduced me to perspectives I hadn’t considered before. It was a reminder of how diverse thinking and effective collaboration can lead to remarkable solutions. This experience has profoundly influenced the way I approach challenges and will undoubtedly shape my academic and professional journey.”

Chloe Houvardas says her decision to join the team was very spontaneous. She was told a professor was looking for students to compete in a data competition in China and she next found herself applying for a visa and packing her bags to fly across the world.

“One big reason why our whole team had so much fun was that we always kept an open mind,” Houvardas says. “This served us very well in every aspect of the competition. We never said no to anything, whether it was performing a song on stage for provincial television or trying some really spicy food, everybody was open to trying new things. This also applied to our project, we spent a lot of time simply brainstorming. I think it took half a day before we even touched any code. Staying open to different perspectives and being willing to adopt newer technologies allowed us to craft a product that felt novel. It was definitely a cool feeling that our ‘little’ school from Kingston placed above all the other schools.”