International programming event attracts AI and cybersecurity talent

NDO - Students who love programming gathered at the Generative AI and Information Security Hackathon organized by RMIT University with the aim of approaching and solving the latest technological challenges that have appeared globally.

The event attracted many candidates from RMIT University, University of Melbourne, Vietnam National University in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, etc.

The competition focuses on solving information security problems when applying large language models (LLMs) that are popular worldwide thanks to tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini.

According to the organizers, cloud infrastructure provides the environment and resources needed to run large language models, however, the field is fraught with security risks, including denial-of-service (DoS) attacks on AI, social engineering attacks, data security breaches, and other threats.

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

Students compete in the competition.

“As AI systems become more and more integrated into people’s daily lives, ensuring security and reliability becomes paramount,” said Dr. Robert Shen. “This competition provides a unique platform for students to tackle real-world AI security challenges, from setting up secure cloud infrastructure to detecting anomalies in web traffic.”

Teams entered into three related challenges, each designed to leverage skills and knowledge gained from the previous one.

The challenges included implementing an OpenAI-like API on the Amazon EC2 cloud, implementing encoding and decoding using Python, and fine-tuning AI models for binary classification of web traffic. The fourth challenge (which was not disclosed in advance) required teams to test the robustness of large language models to linguistic modifications.

Associate Professor Fengling Han, initiator of the competition and Head of the Bachelor of Information Security program at RMIT University, was impressed with the quality of entries from students competing in each location.

“The teams demonstrated excellent problem-solving skills and technical expertise. What particularly impressed me was how quickly they responded to the task. In a short time, they learned from simulations prepared by the technical team of the organizing committee, then developed solutions that demonstrated their understanding of AI capabilities and information security principles,” she said.

Teams are evaluated through a novel combination of AI-powered evaluation and human verification, ensuring comprehensiveness and fairness in scoring solutions.

The best teams of the competition in Ho Chi Minh City with the organizing committee.

Team PetKulLeon from RMIT's Melbourne campus won the overall first prize. Team Deadline-Haters , comprising three exchange students and one transfer student from RMIT Vietnam studying in Melbourne, won the runner-up title.

Sharing her team's experience, Le Nguyen My Chau, representative of the Deadline-Haters team, said that this was a great opportunity to learn and grasp the concept of how a hackathon works because none of the team members had participated in a similar competition before.

“We are all studying Information Technology or Software Engineering, so participating in the hackathon also gives us more knowledge about new technologies and trends in the industry. We participated without thinking that we would win, but I think the main factors that helped us succeed were the ability to work and communicate well in a team as well as the spirit of learning,” My Chau shared.

Other winning teams include AlThon , D ahp and fintechbois , U scyber and V ilo2da .

The success of this inaugural hackathon laid a solid foundation for future cross-national collaborations in technology education, and underscored RMIT’s commitment to driving innovation in AI and cybersecurity across its global network.

The Generative AI and Information Security Hackathon is organized by the School of Computer Science and RACE Hub at RMIT Australia, in collaboration with the School of Science, Engineering and Technology at RMIT Vietnam with the support of Amazon Web Services (AWS), NAB and De Heus.

Source: https://nhandan.vn/su-kien-lap-trinh-lien-quoc-gia-thu-hut-tai-nang-ai-va-an-toan-thong-tin-post845513.html