✨ Winning the 2024 Morgan Stanley GenAI Hackathon

I’m thrilled to share that my team and I won the People’s Choice Award at the 2024 Morgan Stanley Generative AI Hackathon — an incredible event that brought together some of the brightest minds across the firm to explore how AI can transform the way we work.

Our winning project tackled a challenge that every production support engineer knows too well:
When an alert fires, finding the correct resolution steps can take precious minutes — sometimes longer — as operators dig through documentation, wikis, and past incident notes.

Our Idea: AI-Powered Alert Resolution at Your Fingertips

We built an application that automatically pulls alert details, uses Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to look up the relevant resolution steps from internal documentation, and then embeds those instructions directly into the alert.

No more manual searches.
No more context switching.
Just actionable steps — instantly.

This means that when an alert appears, the operator already has the exact instructions they need to troubleshoot and recover — saving time, reducing errors, and improving overall reliability.

Four Rounds of Judging - and a Big Win

The hackathon had four rounds of judging, with projects evaluated on innovation, technical execution, and impact. Our solution stood out not only for its technical implementation, but also for the tangible value it delivered to production support teams.

We were honored to present our project to senior-level executives, who saw the potential for this technology to streamline workflows across the organization.

When voting opened for the People’s Choice Award, our project resonated with the audience — and we took home the win!

Under the Hood - How It Works

Our solution combined:

• Generative AI for natural language understanding and contextual responses
• RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) to ensure answers were grounded in accurate, up-to-date documentation
• Automated alert enrichment, embedding the AI-generated resolution steps directly into the alert system

The result? A self-service resolution assistant for operators — like having a subject matter expert available 24/7.

Why This Matters

This project demonstrated not only how Generative AI can accelerate problem-solving, but also how practical AI applications can directly improve operational resilience. For production support engineers, every minute counts - and our solution helps reclaim those minutes.

Looking Ahead

The hackathon win was a huge honor, but for me, it’s also a testament to the potential of AI-driven automation in enterprise environments. I’m excited to continue exploring ways to combine AI, automation, and engineering best practices to make systems smarter, faster, and more reliable.

Skills Highlighted in This Project:

• Generative AI integration with enterprise systems
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) for accurate knowledge retrieval
• Automation for operational efficiency
• Full-stack prototype development under time constraints
• Technical presentation to senior leadership