CEOAI // EUROAI DAY THREE
Compete, eat, have fun, sleep, repeat!
Compete, eat, have fun, sleep, repeat!
Good morning! (or good evening… or 2 AM, we’re not judging.)
Well… today’s the day we’ve all been waiting for.
No more practice rounds.
No more “let’s see if the platform works.”
No more “oops, I submitted the wrong file.”
Today was the first official competition round.
And honestly? You could feel it.
The atmosphere was completely different this morning. Everyone was still smiling during breakfast, but there was definitely a little more silence than yesterday. People were reviewing notes one last time, discussing ideas with teammates, or simply enjoying the last peaceful moments before… the battle began.
(Cue dramatic movie soundtrack – booom!)
The first official round
Once everyone arrived at CREIC, contestants took their places and waited for the countdown, while the staff made sure everything was perfect and cozy! (hehe)
And, well, after that…
Complete silence.
Hundreds of keyboards. Hundreds of ideas. Hundreds of AI models waiting to be trained.
For the next five hours, every participant gave it their absolute best, solving challenging machine learning tasks that tested not only their technical knowledge, but also their creativity and perseverance.
Meanwhile, team leaders had their own busy schedule, attending the General Assembly while students were competing.
As someone once said during the Opening Ceremony:
“You all deserve to be here.” — Miruna Zăvelcă
Looking around the competition hall today, those words couldn’t have felt more true. Every participant earned their place through months (and, for many, years) of hard work. Regardless of today’s results, simply being here is already an incredible achievement, so this being said, the organizing committee – yes, those who have been writing these newsletters :) – want to personally congratulate you, and we wish you the best of luck for the next competition round! :D
(p.s.: if you’re reading this at 2 AM, PLEASE go to sleep, you’ll need it!)
Once the competition ended… everyone finally remembered they were hungry. Lunch was filled with conversations like:
“How did you solve Task 2?”
“Wait… there WAS a Task 3?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s eat bro.”
and, of course, there were also conversations such as:
“OMG YES I’VE SOLVED IT CORRECTLY”
“did you use manual labeling?”
“i’m happy with what i’ve managed to do! yippe”
So yeah, i guess you could say they were some pretty interesting conversations, but what matters the most is that no one was actually said, everyone was happy to be there and they couldn’t be more proud of their accomplishments, while also making friends and meeting new people!
Alright, time to discover Cluj!
In the end, after such an intense day, it was finally time to relax.
Each delegation explored Cluj-Napoca alongside their volunteer, wandering through the city’s streets, discovering famous landmarks, taking lots (and lots) of photos, and, of course, trying a few Romanian specialties along the way.
Seeing participants from so many different countries laughing together, exchanging stories, and getting to know each other’s cultures reminded us that CEOAI is about much more than a competition.
It’s about building a community.
And honestly… we think that’s pretty awesome.
(Also, if your phone storage is suddenly full of pictures from Cluj… don’t blame us.)
Ending the day (finally)
Dinner brought everyone back together before team leaders continued with appeals and translations, preparing everything for tomorrow’s round.
As for the students?
Some went back to the hotel to rest.
Some discussed today’s problems for hours.
Some definitely said, “I’m not thinking about AI anymore today.”
(We know how that usually ends.)
Now, for tomorrow…
One round down.
Another challenge awaits tomorrow.
Get some rest, recharge your brain, and don’t forget that you’ve already accomplished something incredible by making it this far. We’re really proud of you, every single person from this competition was amazing and getting the chance to meet you, hear your opinions, your ideas and connect with you was the best way we could’ve spend our day. Thank you for being here!
We’ll be back tomorrow with another recap, more photos, more stories, and probably a few more questionable jokes. (and probably questionable life choices, like writing this whole thing at 1 AM instead of sleeping, hm..)
Anyways, now it’s time to sleep. See you on Day 4, and good luck! :)