Drupal's successful Hackathon: Pioneering Generative AI solutions for the Europa Web Platform

On 16 October 2024, The One hosted the first Drupal@Europa Web Platform Hackathon organised by DIGIT.B1 Europa IT team in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Bringing together technical experts –such as Drupal developers, QA, DevSecOps and DevOps– and colleagues from across the EUIBAs with an interest in innovation –Project Managers, Business Analysts–. Participants explored the potential of Generative AI to develop decoupled solutions for search assistants and automated content creation. The Hackathon highlighted the crucial role of innovative technologies in shaping the future of digital collaboration within the European Commission. 

Hackathon challenges 

Participants were divided in teams of five, combining business and technical expertise, to tackle two key challenges, with the option to choose between them: 

1. AI-powered content editor assistant: Build an AI tool to enhance content creation in OpenEuropa.  
2. AI chatbot for natural language site exploration: Create a chatbot enabling users to navigate and search Drupal-based content using natural language. 

The hackathon attracted a diverse group of participants, including: 

• Project Managers 
• Site Owners 
• Business and Functional Analysts 
• UX/UI Designers 
• Drupal Developers 
• DevSecOps Specialists 
• QA Experts 

Winning teams: Innovation in action 

Three teams emerged as champions of innovation within the Hackathon; AInstein, AIventurers, and AIAIAI team, although all teams presented great solutions.  

1. Einsteins team: 

• Project Focus: A CKEditor plugin to summarise documents for diverse audiences. 
• Key Innovations: 
• Summary customisation based on tone and length 
• Use of the Mistral language model 
• Future roadmap: Integrating media libraries and supporting temporary document uploads. 
• Notable achievement: The AIstein team was awarded first place for their innovative solution, which has led to the release of the first alpha version of the AI: Summarise Document module on Drupal.org. This module, developed during the Drupal@Europa Web Platform Hackathon, employs Generative AI to streamline document summarisation, providing tailored summaries based on user-defined tones and lengths. 
  The module not only supports the operational activities of the European Commission but also contributes to the open-source Drupal community. For further details and access, visit the module’s page here: AI: Summarise Document Module. 

2. AIventurers team: 

• Project focus: AI-enhanced content editing capabilities for OpenEuropa. 
• Features delivered: 
• Content tone adjustments 
• Flash reading score estimates 
• External references and paraphrasing tools 
• AI-generated FAQs and image creation 
• Community contribution: Shared tools with the Drupal community to encourage adoption. 

3. AIAIAI team: 

• Project focus: A multilingual chatbot leveraging the EU’s website database. 
• Technical Implementation: Utilised Amazon Kendra for data crawling and Amazon Q Business for chatbot development, and also designed a prototype in Figma. 
• Key Challenges: Addressing user permission complexities and ensuring accurate, customisable responses. 

Looking Ahead 

This hackathon underscores the European Commission’s commitment to fostering collaboration and innovation in digital solutions. We thank all participants for their dedication and valuable contributions, and we look forward to future events that further explore the transformative potential of AI in public services. 

Together, we are shaping a smarter, more connected Europe. 

A special thank you to all the teams: Ainstein, Conscious Robots, Mother of drAIgons, AIventurers, Foreign Policy, AI Engagers, AIAIAI, Supersonic squad, Bumblebee and iO. Your participation was greatly appreciated, and we are already excited for the next edition in 2025, which will be announced soon.  

If you are passionate about innovation, digital transformation, AI don’t forget to check our Drupal CoP website, take part in our Teams community and to follow us on LinkedIn.