University of Hawaiʻi students shined in the third annual AT&T UH Mobile Tech Hackathon, held this year at Sacred Hearts Academy.
The 24-hour event is designed for those interested in coding mobile apps or hacking hardware solutions. Members of Hawaiʻi’s tech community were on hand to network with students and others interested in technology.
Governor David Ige, a graduate of the UH Mānoa’s College of Engineering, made a repeat appearance as a judge. Todd Nacapuy, chief information officer for the state, and Mark Wong, City and County of Honolulu chief information officer, rounded out the judges panel.
“I’m very impressed once again by the talent and drive exhibited by these students who are solving our community’s problems through the development of these apps,” said Ige. “Through their technology skills, the students are working to improve the quality of life for the people of Hawaiʻi, their communities, our state and the nation.”
Teams develop apps from conception to implementation
The teams had a mixture of creative talent and development skills. They created their Android or iOS apps from conception to implementation and each team had three minutes to present their finished mobile app to the panel of judges.
“One of these participants could well be the next Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg,” said David Chin, professor and chair of information and computer sciences at UH. “With the high cost of doing business locally, we’re not going to be able to persuade existing tech companies to relocate to our islands. Our best bet is to grow our own entrepreneurs, people who grew up here and love the ʻāina, who will build the next Microsoft or Apple or Facebook right here in Hawaiʻi.”
Winners
- Team Micro Manager won the grand prize and Best Use of Harman
Bradford Baris, Brandon Baris, Jon Borgonia and Kelli Borgonia - Team Push Box won second place overall
Stephani Diep, Aditya Kumar, Josh Nishiguchi, James Park, Reed Shusato and Ryan Tanaka - Team Data Dudes won Best Smart City Application
Alexander Anich, Marifel Barbosa, Bryan Butteling, Kawika Kekahuna, Brock Lanoza and Emmanuel Pilande - Team Ono Elections won Best UI/UX
Brad Ashburn and Kirk Johnson - Team Pi Home won Best M2X
Kaiewa Bello, Alexander Char, Elliot Ito, Jaron Kuriyamam and Johnathan Sult
AT&T sponsors the Hackathon in partnership with UH. The goal is to create a sustainable environment for aspiring and seasoned developers to deploy a mobile app with a website backend that is fully hosted in the cloud. The event also aims to help entrepreneurs and startups build mobile apps.
“We are so pleased that Governor Ige joined us again as a judge along with the chief information officers for the state and the county,” said Carol Tagayun, AT&T director of external affairs. “This is a reflection of the growing importance of technology in Hawaiʻi and the seemingly unlimited potential of this industry.”
