Milestones
Milestones and learnings from my journey.
Academic and Competitive Milestones
Achieved Global Top 50 Rank - IBM watsonx TechXchange Hackathon
2025Core Backend and Systems Engineer - Team: We Don't Test Anymore (Walchand College of Engineering)
Recognized among the Global Top 50 teams worldwide for building PRISM AI, an agentic collaboration system that unifies enterprise event streams (Slack, Jira, CI/CD, and more) into a temporal knowledge graph to eliminate duplicate work, improve workload distribution, and preserve decision context. Leveraged IBM watsonx (LLMs plus Orchestrate) to enable explainable, autonomous agents that detect workflow inefficiencies and trigger actionable interventions across enterprise systems.
IBM TechXchange 2025 - Invitation
2025
Official invite associated with the Global Top 50 watsonx hackathon recognition.
- Top 50 globally (IBM selection)
- Invited to IBM TechXchange 2025 (Florida)
- Competed against global teams across multiple countries
- Recognized for high-impact AI system design and enterprise applicability
1st Place - COEP Inspiron 4.0 (National Hackathon)
2025Backend and Data Systems Engineer - Team: We Don't Test Anymore
Secured 1st place in a 36-hour national-level hackathon at COEP by solving a complex data engineering challenge: building a metastore viewer for Iceberg, Delta, Hudi, and Parquet directly from S3-compatible object storage without depending on Hive or Glue. Built a fully containerized microservices system to parse raw lakehouse table formats, reconstruct metadata, and deliver a unified interface for schema and table insights. Focused on deep file-level parsing and metadata reconstruction to enable real-time exploration across distributed data formats.
COEP Inspiron 4.0 - Winner Snapshot
2025
- Achieved 1st rank among national participants at COEP Inspiron 4.0
- Built a format-specific microservices architecture for Hudi, Iceberg, Delta, and Parquet
- Implemented direct S3 parsing without external catalog dependencies (Hive or Glue)
- Engineered a Dockerized, extensible system for unified metadata querying
Winner - Walchand Imagine Cup (National Startup Pitch Competition)
2026Core Backend and Product Systems Contributor - Team: IOTAS
Secured 1st place in Walchand Imagine Cup, a national-level startup pitching competition, by building and pitching an EdTech product against 200+ teams across India. Advanced through multiple competitive stages including a Top 15 shortlist and Top 5 roundtable pitching, where we presented to industry experts and competed against strong teams including early-stage startups. Demonstrated both technical depth and product thinking by translating a production-capable system into a compelling, real-world business solution.
Walchand Imagine Cup - Winner Snapshot
2026
Winner milestone from the national startup pitch competition.
Winner - Ideathon 2025 (Vision 2K25 National Symposium)
2025Core Contributor - Product and System Design | Team: NPCs (Non-Playable Characters)
Secured 1st place at Ideathon 2025, a national-level innovation competition under Vision 2K25, by presenting a high-impact idea evaluated across multiple rigorous stages. Advanced through the idea shortlisting round and delivered a strong final presentation, successfully defending feasibility, scalability, and real-world impact before a panel of expert judges. Competed against teams with ready prototypes, demonstrating strong conceptual clarity, structured thinking, and the ability to translate ideas into viable solutions.
Ideathon 2025 - Winner Snapshot
2025
Winner milestone from Vision 2K25 Ideathon.
- 1st rank among national participants in a highly competitive ideation challenge
- Cleared multi-stage evaluation from shortlisting to final presentation and Q&A
- Defended feasibility, innovation, and impact before expert judges
- Outperformed teams with working prototypes through strong product thinking and articulation
MetaLens - IEEE ICFT 2025 Research Publication and Presentation
Nov 2025Co-Author and Presenter
Published and presented the research paper 'MetaLens: A Web-Based Tool for Multi-Format Metadata Exploration' at an international IEEE conference, addressing metadata fragmentation across modern lakehouse systems. The work introduces a format-agnostic metadata exploration platform supporting Iceberg, Hudi, Delta, and Parquet for unified schema visibility and stronger data transparency. Presented the paper in the Smart Computing track, engaging with global researchers and industry experts while contributing practical insights to data engineering and lakehouse architecture discussions.
IEEE ICFT 2025 - Conference
Nov 2025
MetaLens presentation and publication milestone at IEEE ICFT 2025.
- Paper accepted and published at IEEE ICFT 2025
- Presented in Smart Computing track to a global academic and industry audience
- Participated in an internationally attended conference with cross-domain researchers
- Proposed a format-agnostic metadata system for real-world data engineering challenges
Finalist - Smart India Hackathon 2025 (Grand Finale)
2025Backend and Systems Contributor - Team: We Don't Test Anymore
Selected as a Grand Finale finalist in Smart India Hackathon 2025, one of India's largest national innovation competitions, while solving a real-world NTRO problem statement. Progressed through multiple evaluation rounds from 72,000+ submissions and 68,000+ teams, reaching the final stage among 1,360 shortlisted teams nationwide. The experience involved high-pressure problem-solving, expert evaluation cycles, and practical cybersecurity system design under real constraints.
SIH 2025 - Grand Finale
2025
Grand Finale finalist milestone at SIH 2025.
- Grand Finale finalist among 68,000+ teams across India
- Selected from 72,000+ idea submissions across 271 national problem statements
- Worked on a real-world cybersecurity problem statement from NTRO
- Demonstrated resilience and adaptability under national-level competitive pressure
Finalist - IndiaAI GenAI Impact Hackathon (IISc Bangalore x IBM)
Aug-Sep 2025Core Systems and AI Contributor - Team: We Don't Test Anymore
Selected as a finalist in the IndiaAI GenAI Impact Hackathon 2025, organized by IISc Bangalore in collaboration with IBM, under the Agentic AI Applications for Real-World Issues track. Built PRISM AI, an agentic system designed to autonomously analyze enterprise workflows and trigger intelligent actions to improve coordination, reduce duplication, and strengthen decision-making. The competition brought together top teams across India to solve real-world challenges using generative AI and provided hands-on exposure to practical large-scale AI system design and deployment constraints.
IndiaAI GenAI Impact - Finalist Snapshot
Aug-Sep 2025
Finalist milestone at IISc Bangalore x IBM IndiaAI GenAI Impact Hackathon.
- Finalist at a national-level AI hackathon hosted by IISc Bangalore and IBM
- Built PRISM AI, an agentic system for real-world enterprise problem-solving
- Competed among top AI-focused teams across India
- Gained practical experience with GenAI and autonomous systems design
Finalist - Odoo x Mindbend Hackathon '25 (NIT Surat)
Apr 2025Full-Stack and ML Systems Contributor - Team: SPD Emergency
Selected as a finalist at Mindbend Hackathon '25, a national-level 24-hour hackathon hosted by SVNIT Surat in collaboration with Odoo. Built Awkward-edu, a social-impact platform for teenagers combining a community interface with ML-driven behavioral analysis to detect distress signals and support early intervention. Delivered an end-to-end system under tight time constraints by integrating ML models, backend services, and frontend UX while adapting quickly to a new domain and large-scale system requirements.
Mindbend '25 - Finalist Snapshot
Apr 2025
Finalist milestone at Odoo x Mindbend Hackathon '25.
- Finalist (Top 50) among 300+ participating teams nationwide
- Built an ML-integrated platform for behavioral analysis and early distress detection
- Delivered a complete full-stack and ML system within a 24-hour sprint
- Competed against teams from IITs, NITs, and IIITs with strong execution under pressure
Finalist - COEP MindSpark Hackathon '25 (Tata Motors)
Oct 2025Optimization and Systems Contributor - Team: We Don't Test Anymore
Selected as a finalist at COEP MindSpark Hackathon 2025, the flagship national-level hackathon hosted by COEP in collaboration with Tata Motors. Worked on a real-world manufacturing optimization problem focused on conveyor and buffer sequencing, requiring rapid system design and algorithmic decision-making under strict constraints. Adapted to a last-minute problem statement change by rebuilding the approach from scratch within 24 hours and successfully delivering a working simulation with optimized sequencing logic.
COEP MindSpark '25 - Finalist Snapshot
Oct 2025
Finalist milestone at COEP MindSpark Hackathon '25.
- Finalist in a national-level hackathon with an industry-backed Tata Motors problem statement
- Solved an operations research optimization challenge for manufacturing systems
- Rebuilt the full solution after a last-minute problem switch
- Delivered working simulation and optimized sequencing logic within a 24-hour sprint
Finalist - RIT Hackathon 2k25 (AI/ML Track)
2025Backend and AI Systems Contributor - Team: The Code Crafters
Selected as a finalist at RIT Hackathon 2k25 in the AI/ML track, building Swasthya, an AI-driven WhatsApp healthcare platform focused on accessibility and real-time assistance. Developed an end-to-end system integrating AI query resolution, report analysis, and medical test booking through WhatsApp and web/mobile interfaces. Delivered a fully functional solution within a 24-hour sprint, demonstrating strong integration across backend, AI services, and communication infrastructure.
Finalist milestone at RIT Hackathon 2k25 (AI/ML Track).
ACM Hackathon 2023 - First Hackathon Experience (Novice Track)
2025First-ever hackathon participation during first year, where I moved from learning concepts to shipping an end-to-end product in a high-pressure sprint. Built Krushi Samwardhan Mohim, a MERN platform for farmers covering government schemes, weather insights, agro-tourism opportunities, and access to farming tools through a practical marketplace workflow. This milestone laid the groundwork for later national-level hackathon performance by building confidence in full-stack implementation, teamwork, and quick decision-making.
First hackathon milestone that kickstarted the development journey.
- ACM Hackathon 2023 (GitHub Project)
- LinkedIn Post
- First hackathon experience in first year, marking the start of practical software building
- Built Krushi Samwardhan Mohim as a full-stack MERN platform from scratch in 24 hours
- Integrated real-world farmer-focused modules: scheme awareness, weather support, agro-tourism, and tools marketplace
- Strengthened core foundations in rapid prototyping, collaboration, and product-focused execution under constraints
I'm Om Kulkarni - a software engineer focused on building high-performance distributed systems and robust backend architectures.
© 2026 Om Kulkarni