Hackathons
| Hackathon Statistics | |
| Total Hackathons | 5 |
| Total Wins | 3 |
⭐ Top Coder Challenge
Team: Mehmet Yilmaz
Date: June 7, 2025
Location: Remote
Placing: 7 / 425
In a single-day, 8 hour, sprint I reverse-engineered a decades-old travel-reimbursement model using classical ML and heuristics. The solution matched hidden test cases closely enough to break into the global top-10. The solo marathon sharpened my data-forensics and rapid-prototyping skills.
Sources:
GitHub submission, Challenge repository, Chamath tweet, Final leaderboard tweet, My blog recap
⭐ 2025 National Security Hackathon
Team: Christina Huang, Dylan Eck, Loana Munteanu & Mehmet Yilmaz
Date: April 26-27, 2025
Location: San Francisco
Placing: $5,000 Special Prize & Honorable Mention
Team Aspen built Guardian Grid, a smart-city evacuation platform, while simultaneously tackling a refrigeration-security side challenge. The dual-track gamble won the largest cash award and earned special kudos from the judges. The weekend forged lifelong friendships and produced a production-ready prototype.
Sources:
GitHub submission, Event page, LinkedIn announcement, Project page
The DocuSign Hackathon: Unlocked
Team: Mehmet Yilmaz & Dylan Eck
Date: November 20, 2024 - January 27, 2025
Location: Remote
Placing: Participated
Over the holidays we engineered DocuInsight, an AI-powered contract-simplification service that plugs directly into DocuSign. Although it missed the leaderboard, the product later grew into a live SaaS with paying users. The experience taught us as much about shipping production software as it did about hackathon crunch time.
Sources:
Devpost challenge, Devpost submission, Demo video #1, Demo video #2, Live app, My project write-up
⭐ ANARCHY October 2023 Hackathon
Team: Mehmet Yilmaz, Ben Zimmerman & Ananya Aithal
Date: August 30, 2023 - September 6, 2023
Location: Remote
Placing: 1st Place
Our project InsightRed mined Reddit comments with an LLM-powered pipeline to surface high-intent leads for product launches. It impressed the judges and secured the top spot, leading to a later part-time role at Anarchy (YC W23). The win validated both the product idea and the power of a cohesive remote team.
Sources:
Project write-up
NEAR MetaBUILD III Hackathon
Team: Mehmet Yilmaz & Dylan Eck
Date: September 23, 2022 - November 21, 2022
Location: Remote
Placing: Participated
Labeler NearBy aimed to decentralize AI data-labeling on the NEAR blockchain, offering researchers a transparent alternative to centralized platforms. We shipped most of the backend but underestimated front-end scope and missed the prize window. The project nevertheless sparked a deep dive into dApps and cryptographic workflows.
Sources:
Devpost challenge, Devpost submission, Code part 1, Code part 2, Project write-up