The seventh edition of , an annual coding competition, was held at the MacLean Engineering Sciences Center this past weekend. Around 80 students gathered to brainstorm ideas and create innovative technology solutions that address issues in a variety of sectorshealth care, climate, education and more.
The 24-hour event, themed Hack on your wild side, had five categories for participating programmers to choose from: health and recovery, empowerment, augmented reality/virtual reality, cultural revitalization and clean tech.
This is the first in-person hackathon weve had in three years, says Katherine Lasonde 23, director of Hack窪做惇蹋厙, a student-led program. The event was cancelled in 2020 and held virtually last year owing to COVID-19 concerns. The contest usually welcomes participants across the country, but, out of an abundance of caution, was limited to 窪做惇蹋厙 students this year.
Prizes, worth more than $10,000 in all, ranged from smart speakers and tablets to swag boxes from sponsors.
The health and recovery stream was the most competitive category, says Lasonde. A lot of people ended up gravitating towards mental wellness because its such a pertinent issue at this current time, especially among college students, she says.
This was evidenced in the entries that placed first and second in this category. Sadbird, created by Matthew Timofeev 25, Eric Lu 25, Aneesh Patnaik 25, and Rishav Chakravarty 25, flags negative and emotionally confusing tweets that users can choose to avoid. Elizabeth Frey 24, Russell Chai 24, and Annie Qiu 24 designed WellBuddies, a digital buddy that provides customized suggestions to encourage students to prioritize their well-being.
Ziray Hao 22, Vivek Hazari 22, Daniel DiPietro 22, and John McCambridge 22 bagged the prize in clean tech for Canary, a mobile app that promotes socially responsible investing by assessing the carbon footprint of a users investment portfolio.
Plant Buddy and Greenlight were awarded first and second place in the empowerment category. The former, developed by Sherry Liu 22, Ashna Kumar 24, Madeleine Bernardeau 22, and Chavin Udomwongsa 24, helps users care for their plants better. The latter, made by Steven Mendley 24, Jackson Desmond 24, Tucker Simpson 24, and Michael Mauricio 24 is an app for Apple iPhones that manages entry of guests into Greek spaces on campus.
The prize-winning entry in the AR/VR category was RemembVR, a virtual reality experience that builds nostalgic timelines for users from their photos and audio playlists. It was built by Julian Wu 22, Brandy Zhang 22, and Macy Toppan 22.
Benedict Tedjokusumo 23 created Why We Eat, an app that provides customized local dining options. The app won second prize in the cultural revitalization category. The top winner in that category was Diversifi, a web app built by Ravin Anderson 24, Julian George 24, Andrew Chen 24, and Alphonso Bradham 24, that introduces users to new music from other cultures, using playlists to gauge their musical tastes.
Many participants did not have a background in computer science, Lasonde notes. She hopes to see a bigger turnout at next years event, tentatively scheduled on April 15-16, 2023.
