🎄✨Advent of Code 2025 Raffle Winners ✨🎄

Hey everyone! In the spirit of giving this Christmas, we’ve conducted a raffle for participants of the NUS Hackers Advent of Code 2025 🎁

Just as a reminder, anyone who:
- Joined the NUS Hackers private AoC leaderboard, and
- Earned ≥ 10 ⭐ by the end of the event
was eligible to enter the raffle for some goodies!

🎉 Congratulations to our 15 raffle winners (in no particular order):

1. WilkinsAng (12 ⭐)
2. Ling Song (19 ⭐)
3. Lee Poe Aik (24 ⭐)
4. yixun (17 ⭐)
5. leyew (24 ⭐)
6. msinanyildirim (17 ⭐)
7. Chong Chin Herng (24 ⭐)
8. synchrownicity (24 ⭐)
9. henrlly (24 ⭐)
10. Ryan Vernados (12 ⭐)
11. nikele2001 (24 ⭐)
12. greysome (14 ⭐)
13. Quinn Chua (24 ⭐)
14. tzj04 (14 ⭐)
15. Shroudyrowdy (17 ⭐)

📩 Next steps (for winners):
Please DM Benn Tan (@bbnbbnb123) on Telegram with:
- Your name
- Your email
- A screenshot of your Advent of Code dashboard (for verification)

We’ll then send your gift 🎉

Thank you to everyone who participated! We loved seeing the energy & solutions throughout AoC. See you again next year! 🚀🎄

Hey everyone!

We are happy to announce that the first Hack&Roll 2026 pre-hackathon workshop is open for signups! 🎉

AgileSecure V11 - Integrated Security Management Platform (ISMP)
by ST Engineering

AgileSecure V11 is part of an Integrated Security Management Platform (ISMP) with over 37 years of industry use, built for large-scale, mission-critical security systems.

This workshop covers real-world engineering challenges in enterprise security, focusing on two key areas:

1) Identity Management
Authentication and authorization at scale, including RBAC vs ABAC and practical identity design pitfalls.

2) Database DevOps
Backup, restore, and reliability practices for enterprise databases, with real-world operational insights.

Who Should Attend
- CS and Software Engineering students
- Anyone interested in security, backend systems, or DevOps

📅 Tuesday, 6th January 2026, 5:00 to 7:00pm
📍 NUS COM3-01-23, Seminar Room 14

Note: signups are limited to Hack&Roll 2026 accepted/rejected participants only
Login to your participant dashboard to signup, or use the link here

Keep an eye out for more workshops coming up through the next 2 weeks!

BUMP to sign up for the VERY FIRST of our workshop series for Hack&Roll 2026, led by ST Engineering!

Don't miss out on a chance to learn security, backend systems, and DevOps principles from industry professionals!

BONUS: We are also opening signups to the public! Visit this link to signup!

As always, food will be provided!

Hey everyone!

We are happy to announce that the second Hack&Roll 2026 pre-hackathon workshop is open for signups! 🎉

Happening TOMORROW - Your AI doesn’t know your code base yet
by Cursor

Learn how to better use cursor, and more about agent stacks - a set of open standards and patterns that are converging across Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, and other tools.

This talk is open to the public. Use this link to signup!

As always, food will be provided!

Hey everyone!

We are happy to announce that the third Hack&Roll 2026 pre-hackathon workshop is open for signups! 🎉

Note: signups are limited to Hack&Roll 2026 accepted/rejected participants only (for now 👀)

ESP32 Unleash! ESP-IDF Workshop
by Espressif

Want to bring out the most out of your ESP32? Using a limited edition ESP32-C3 development board, you will learn Espressif's official IoT Development Framework, explore different sensors and connectivity, and pick up useful skills for real projects beyond the hackathon. Hearsay the board quacks like a certain famous duck....

Please set your system up before the workshop! Boards will be provided during the workshop.

📅 Thursday, 8th January 2026, 6:00 to 9:00pm SGT
📍 NUS COM3-01-23, Seminar Room 14

🍕 Refreshments will be provided after the workshop

Login to your participant dashboard to signup, or use the link here

Keep an eye out for more workshops coming up through the next 2 weeks!

Hey everyone!

We are happy to announce that the fourth Hack&Roll 2026 pre-hackathon workshop is open for signups! 🎉

Note: signups are limited to Hack&Roll 2026 accepted/rejected participants only

Hackathon Mode: Going from 0 → 1 in 24 Hours with Codex
by OpenAI

This hands-on hackathon workshop introduces Codex, OpenAI’s coding agent, to help you go from idea to working demo—fast. You’ll learn how to build in hackathon mode using Skills, Model Context Protocols (MCPs), and the Responses API’s built-in tools to give your agent structure, capabilities, and real-world context. We’ll show how Codex fits seamlessly into your workflow—via the CLI, IDE, cloud, or even on mobile—and share practical strategies for scoping, iterating, and shipping under tight time pressure. We’ll wrap up with live demos—plus a chance to take home some swag.

📅 Friday, 9th January 2026, 5:00 to 7:00pm SGT
📍 NUS COM3-01-23, Seminar Room 14

🍕 Refreshments will be provided after the workshop

Login to your participant dashboard to signup, or use the link here

Keep an eye out for more workshops coming up next week!

Just a reminder that the workshop by Espressif is tomorrow at 6pm!

To signup, log in to your Participant Dashboard

🍕 Food will be provided after the workshop

See you all there!

Update: Signups for OpenAI's workshop (scheduled for Friday, 9th January, 5pm to 7pm SGT) will close on Friday, 9th January, 11:30am SGT. Make sure to signup via the Participant Dashboard before then!

Update: Espressif is opening up 15 slots to the public on a first-come, first-served basis! 🎉

If you have any friends who would like to sign up for the workshop today, send them this link.

The workshop will take place at 6:00pm SGT today, at COM3-01-23 Seminar Room 14.

Due to overwhelming demand and venue constraints, signups for OpenAI's workshop are closed.

Those who have signed up will have received an email with a form link - please submit this form before Friday 9th January, 11:30 am SGT. Otherwise, we will be unable to provide any free credits during the workshop.

Meanwhile, keep an eye out for 4 more workshops coming next week!

Hey everyone! We have our 5th workshop open for registration! 🎉

Note: signups are limited to Hack&Roll 2026 accepted/rejected participants only

Agentic AI
By Marvell Technology

To explain the difference between Traditional AI and Agentic AI, explaining the autonomous, goal-driven agents capable of reasoning, planning, and acting with minimal human intervention. Explain and display how agentic AI systems proactively pursue objectives, adapt to dynamic environments, and collaborate with humans and other agents. This talk explores the principles behind agentic AI, its transformative potential in the commercial world

Pre-requisites
- Have preferred IDE installed
- Have a Github account
- Have Git installed, have Python version 3.11 installed
- Create an account on https://groq.com/
- Click Start Building and sign up with preferred method

If you have any prepared questions that you would like the speaker to answer, please submit them at this link!

📅 Monday, 12th January 2026, 6pm to 8pm
📍 NUS COM3-01-22 Seminar Room 13

🍕 Refreshments will be provided after the workshop

Login to your participant dashboard to signup, or use the link here

Keep an eye out for more workshops coming next week!

Hey everyone! We have our 6th pre-Hack&Roll workshop open for registration!

Note: Signups are only open to Hack&Roll accepted/rejected participants (for now 👀)

Introduction to Hybrid Search
By Ahrefs

Learn how modern search engines combine keyword matching (BM25) with semantic understanding to deliver better results. By the end of this workshop, you'll build your own hybrid search engine and use it to create a smart flashcard generator powered by RAG.

📅 Tuesday, 13th January 2026, 6pm to 8pm
📍 NUS COM3-01-21 Seminar Room 12

🍕 Refreshments will be provided after the workshop

Login to your participant dashboard to signup, or use the link here

Keep an eye out for more workshops coming next week!

Hey everyone! We have our 7th pre-Hack&Roll workshop open for registration!

Note: Signups are only open to Hack&Roll accepted/rejected participants (for now 👀)

Building RAG Systems from Scratch
By Marshall Wace

Learn to build Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems from the ground up in this hands-on Python workshop. Progress from simple keyword search to advanced agentic RAG using OpenAI and LlamaIndex.

US$25 worth of OpenAI credits will be provided to workshop participants! Participants will also need to create an OpenAI account with the same email used to register for Hack&Roll.

Sign up by 12th January Monday 4:30pm (TOMORROW) to receive the credits

📅 Wednesday, 14th January 2026, 6pm to 8pm
📍 NUS COM3-01-21 Seminar Room 12

🍕 Refreshments will be provided after the workshop

Login to your participant dashboard to signup, or use the link here

Keep an eye out for more workshops coming next week!

Just a reminder that the workshop by Marvell will be happening tomorrow at 6pm!

To signup, log in to your Participant Dashboard

If you have any questions/topics you would like to discuss with the speaker, fill up form here.

🍕 Food will be provided after the workshop!

See you all there!

Reminder that we will also be having a workshop with Marshall Wace this Wednesday at 6pm!

To signup (for Hack&Roll accepted/rejected participants), log in to your Participant Dashboard

This workshop is now open to public as well, so others can sign up here!

US$25 worth of OpenAI credits will be provided to ALL workshop participants!

Note: Hack&Roll accepted/rejected participants will need to create an OpenAI account with the SAME email used to register for Hack&Roll.

For the public, credits will be granted to the OpenAI account associated with the email used to register via the form above

Sign up by Monday, 12th January 4:30pm (TOMORROW) to receive the credits

🍕 Food will be provided after the workshop

See you all there!

Due to overwhelming demand and venue constraints, signups for Marshall Wace's (Wednesday) workshop are closed.

Those who have signed up, make sure to create an OpenAI account using the same email with which you signed up for the workshop, whether you did it through the Participant Dashboard or through the public link. Otherwise we will be unable to provide you with the free credits in time for the workshop.

Meanwhile, keep an eye out for our other workshops this week, including by Marvell today!

Thanks everyone! Due to overwhelming demand, signups for today's Marvell workshop are also now closed.

For those who signed up, see you later at COM3-01-22 Seminar Room 13 at 6pm!

Meanwhile, for those who could not sign up in time, we still have one more workshop open tomorrow by Ahrefs! Sign up here

Reminder that the workshop by Ahrefs will be happening TOMORROW at 6pm!

To signup, log in to your Participant Dashboard

🍕 As usual, Food will be provided after the workshop!

See you all there!

The workshop is also open to the public at this link!

Hack&Roll 2026: Claim your free API credits now (Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Anthropic, Cursor) 🎉🎉

For Hack&Roll accepted participants only. Submissions made past the deadline may only receive credits midway during the hackathon or not at all.

Please fill in your details in this form, by Thursday, 15th Jan, 11:00am, to ensure that you get your credits BEFORE Hack&Roll starts!

For all other partners, we will be releasing credits and coupons during the hackathon!

Our 8th and final workshop of Hack&Roll 2026 is open for registration!

Multi-Platform Programs in C++
By QRT

C++ code that runs correctly on one operating system may fail or behave differently on another. This talk explores the practical challenges of writing multi-platform C++ programs and how to handle platform-specific behavior in a controlled and predictable way.

We’ll discuss common cross-platform pitfalls, why they occur, and how to use conditional compilation (#if defined(...)) to support different operating systems within the same codebase.

The session includes a short hands-on activity where participants build a small, working C++ program designed with portability in mind. Along the way, the talk also includes general programming and development tips aimed at helping participants write more robust and demo-ready software.

Pre-requisites
Make sure the following software is installed on your system before the workshop based on your operating system:

Windows
- Mingw64 GCC
- WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)
- espeak. Download the version that says "Compiled for Windows"

Linux
- espeak. Download the version that says "compiled for Linux 32bits"

MacOS
- Ensure that say is installed: Open Terminal > type say something and you should hear the word "something".

📅Thursday, 15th January 2026, 5pm to 7pm
📍 NUS COM3-01-21 Seminar Room 12

🍕 Refreshments will be provided after the workshop

Signup
Hack&Roll Participants: Check your Participant Dashboard
Others: Check out this link

That concludes our lineup of workshops for this year's Hack&Roll. See you all on Saturday!