About Balázs Gődény
I originally graduated as a Physicist, but I never worked in this field. I immediately jumped to programming after graduation. I worked in several multinational companies taking on various roles ranging from tester to principal engineer. Recently, I prefer being my own boss and working as an individual entrepreneur.

What is the most interesting project you copiloted at Topcoder and why?
The Lung Cancer Detection Marathon Match is the project that comes to mind when I’m explaining to people what I do for Topcoder. Mainly because it’s immediately obvious to people that this is interesting, challenging, and serves a very good purpose.

What is your most memorable Topcoder challenge and why?
SuperResolution Marathon Match. It was so long ago, the problem statement opened with “Many modern cell phones have digital cameras built into them”. In this challenge, I participated as a solver, not as a copilot. I didn’t perform particularly well. But, I still remember being amazed by how cool it was, improving the resolution of an image from several low-resolution samples.

Is Topcoder your full time job and if so, why does it work for you?
This is not officially my full-time job, but most of my income comes from Topcoder. I like the variance in tasks when it comes to Topcoder. Each couple of months I gain insight to completely different domains.

What do you do when not working?
I sing in a choir, play soccer, read, write, and play online chess.

Where do you work? Tell us about your space(s).
I have a room in our flat. A desk, laptop, monitor, nothing surprising.

If you could give your past self one piece of advice, what would it be?
Don’t be afraid to move away from jobs that you don’t like.

What kind of music do you listen to while working on your solutions?
None. I listen to music pnly when I want to listen to music.

What is the dream project you want to build, design, or solve for?
If I knew the answer, I would already be doing that. But, it would probably combine very diverse areas of human knowledge such as technology and literature.

How does it feel to be a first time TCO Finalist?
I’m curious and excited to meet all these people, some of which I have known for 10 years (if exchanging emails counts as knowing someone).

What are you most looking forward to at your first-ever TCO Finals?
No plans, let’s see what this brings.

Did you strive to make it TCO this year and if so, why does it matter to you?
No. I was very surprised when I discovered that I was invited.