My hackathon record has three first prizes in it, but the finishes that actually changed how I build are the ones where I didn't win outright.
Top 3 at IIT Kanpur
A top-3 finish at an IIT Kanpur hackathon sits right next to my three wins on the resume, and it taught me the same lesson every near-miss does: the gap between first and third is rarely the code. It's almost always the last ten minutes of the pitch.
1st Runner-Up, Cyber Security Awareness Event
At VSICS's Cyber Security Awareness Event, my teammate Ujjwal Mishra and I placed 1st runner-up. The event deepened my understanding of real threats and preventive measures — the kind of foundational security thinking that shows up years later in decisions like FaceVision's embeddings-only backend.
2nd Runner-Up, Perspectives Unleashed
In a debate competition organised by the Computer Applications Department at VSICS, I placed 2nd runner-up arguing a position I didn't personally hold. Every rebuttal sharpened my ability to think on my feet in front of a room — a skill that has mattered more in client pitches and mentorship sessions than any algorithm I've written.
Why near-misses are worth writing about
A trophy tells you what worked. A near-miss tells you exactly what didn't, in specific and uncomfortable detail. If you're a student and you just lost a competition you thought you'd win, write down the specific moment it slipped, before the memory softens it. That note is worth more than the certificate would have been.
Where this started
GenAI engineer and AI product builder with 2+ years shipping production-grade AI systems: RAG pipelines, fine-tuned LLMs, hybrid retrieval and multi-modal apps across vision, speech and OCR, architected end to end from ingestion to deployment. Leads engineering for SCULT INDIA's 14-member team, founded the 500+ member TechVerse Enclave community and has mentored 200+ students. Three hackathon first prizes: Changethon 2025 (IIT Roorkee), Product Genesis at Vividhotsava 2025 (CSJMU Kanpur) and BYTEBATTLE (MeetKats).
Open to GenAI roles, hackathon judging, mentorship sessions and guest talks at colleges. Email pranjulrathour41@gmail.com.
