Documtec and PlantSys hosted a Hackathon event together with kood/Sisu.
The challenge was built around industrial process data in an Elastic Cloud environment. The jury encouraged participants to combine technical problem-solving with an understanding of customer needs. Solutions that used Elastic features, machine learning or AI were given additional weight in the evaluation.
Over approximately 48 hours, participants worked either independently or in teams of up to three people. Nine teams of kood/Sisu Talents took part in the hackathon, and they had free hands to figure out their best solution for the given challenge.
New ideas for product development
The challenge was put together and instructed for the participants by Pyry Kovanen and Laura Leskinen. In addition to the technical outcomes, the hackathon created new ideas and value for Documtec and PlantSys. The event helped companies identify development opportunities that could enhance system reliability, improve customer insights and support predictive maintenance. These areas have a direct influence on operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
“Our Hackathon’s idea was innovation. We were looking for out-of-the-box solutions, new perspectives and ideas to utilise data, which is often overlooked in traditional development projects. As we expected innovation, we were not looking for a complete product.”
Laura Leskinen, Business Director of PlantSys.
The hackathon provided a rapid and low-risk way to explore new directions. Talents were able to test several solution angles in a short timeframe. They presented their solutions to gain perspective on how the data environment can be used in various ways.
Pyry Kovanen and Laura Leskinen served as the event’s jury during the final presentations.
The winning solution combined maintenance and AI
Despite most participants forming small teams, the winning solution was created by one person, Vasilii Gulchak. Originally intended to work with a team, Vasilii ended up making the solution alone after figuring out the basics of Elasticsearch and Kibana data upload.
“On the first day, I got stuck after making the data upload work. I thought about my first day’s lack of results on the way home and concluded that I need to rethink my approach to the problem. I started to think about the product outside of the day-to-day monitoring box. How could I use a massive database to figure out something in a bigger picture using smart tools?”
Vasilii Gulchak, Hackathon winner & Talent of kood/Sisu.
Vasilii Gulchak receiving the winning prize of the Hackathon.
After thinking the whole process through, he started over with an empty table and approached the issue from a different angle.
“I restarted with a new, clear plan: focusing on the plant’s subsystems, visualising their behaviour, and using automated analysis to detect unusual events by comparing past and recent data. I identified the causes, separated one-time issues from recurring ones, and proposed maintenance improvements by using AI”,
Vasilii Gulchak, Hackathon winner & Talent of kood/Sisu.
The result was an automated data analysis system that makes conclusions and maintenance improvements based on the given data and anomalies.
“The winner placed maintenance and service at the core of their solution, implemented AI-driven recommendations, and explored the use of prompting as a real-world use case. This is definitely an idea we intend to build on and leverage in the future.”
Laura Leskinen, Business Director of PlantSys.
Experience and collaboration
The hackathon was seen as a valuable and alternative way to explore new development approaches.
“It was inspiring to see all the participants’ motivation, and we generated a large number of ideas in a very short time. We are adopting Elasticsearch in our own product, and it was great to see that in a short period of time, almost everyone was able to make it work.”
Laura Leskinen, Business Director of PlantSys.
Both Documtec and PlantSys highlighted that the event supported their product vision, validated early-stage ideas and helped prioritise features that could strengthen their competitive advantage.
“I would recommend the Hackathon as a concept for companies that are looking for out-of-the-box thinking and fresh solutions for their ideas.”
Laura Leskinen, Business Director of PlantSys.
Read more about the Hackathons and Services for the Companies.
