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 sectors鈥攈ealth care, climate, education and more.
The 24-hour event, themed 鈥淗ack on your wild side,鈥 had five categories for participating programmers to choose from: health and recovery, empowerment, augmented reality/virtual reality, cultural revitalization and clean tech.
鈥淭his is the first in-person hackathon we鈥檝e had in three years,鈥 says Katherine Lasonde 鈥23, director of Hack线上赌场, 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 线上赌场 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. 鈥淎 lot of people ended up gravitating towards mental wellness because it鈥檚 such a pertinent issue at this current time, especially among college students,鈥 she says.
This was evidenced in the entries that placed first and second in this category. Sadbird, created by Matthew Timofeev 鈥25, Eric Lu 鈥25, Aneesh Patnaik 鈥25, and Rishav Chakravarty 鈥25, flags negative and emotionally confusing tweets that users can choose to avoid. Elizabeth Frey 鈥24, Russell Chai 鈥24, and Annie Qiu 鈥24 designed WellBuddies, a digital buddy that provides customized suggestions to encourage students to prioritize their well-being.
Ziray Hao 鈥22, Vivek Hazari 鈥22, Daniel DiPietro 鈥22, and John McCambridge 鈥22 bagged the prize in clean tech for Canary, a mobile app that promotes socially responsible investing by assessing the carbon footprint of a user鈥檚 investment portfolio.
Plant Buddy and Greenlight were awarded first and second place in the empowerment category. The former, developed by Sherry Liu 鈥22, Ashna Kumar 鈥24, Madeleine Bernardeau 鈥22, and Chavin Udomwongsa 鈥24, helps users care for their plants better. The latter, made by Steven Mendley 鈥24, Jackson Desmond 鈥24, Tucker Simpson 鈥24, and Michael Mauricio 鈥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 鈥22, Brandy Zhang 鈥22, and Macy Toppan 鈥22.
Benedict Tedjokusumo 鈥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 鈥24, Julian George 鈥24, Andrew Chen 鈥24, and Alphonso Bradham 鈥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 year鈥檚 event, tentatively scheduled on April 15-16, 2023.
