Inspiration

We wanted to solve a problem unique for oxford. Preferably using data to make predictions about future events in time. The Polymarket is the best predictor for geopolitics, but we wanted to provide a platform for oxford students to predict news and sports events specific to them.

What it does

The application has 3 main sections. It has a Basic CRUD app that allows users to look up live and historic markets, manage an in-game bank balance, leaderboards. The hand-made order book is written in C++, with O(logn) lookup, O(1) cancellation, and it can handle upwards of 10 million orders a second. We scrape the most reputable oxford student newspapers' live articles and use gemini to spin up/settle different markets automatically.

How we built it

We brainstormed for 2-3 hours and first decided to come up with a system that could predict weather an individual could row on the Isis or not. This would save a team enormous amounts of time with less scheduling, and less wasted trips down to the boat house. This proved a much easier task than expected, and we achieved 96% accuracy using a linear regression model within a couple of hours. We had to expand our horizon and so we moved into the prediction markets space. We split the work up between three people using a claude model to spin up three separate plans. This was the minimise the chance of us standing on each others toes during the development process.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge we ran into was coming up with a new unique idea - it is much harder than you think, especially if you refuse to use AI during the brain storming process. I suspect the more Hackathons you take part in, the easier it gets. Another Significant challenge was that our initial idea was not hard enough, and was not technical enough. This happened due to a miscommunication within the team about scope, and inexperience with claude code.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that despite having to rethink our project plan half way through, we our able to produce and demo a work application that we are proud of. We have all had an amazing time, and will certainly be attending this event in the future.

What we learned

Try and solve an impossible task, and present something that you accomplished along the way.
Enjoy yourself, and get stuck in.
Research the sponsors, and brainstorm with your team before the event too.
Play to your teams strengths