A team of students from Honolulu Community College’s Computing, Electronics, Networking Technology (CENT) and the Information Security and Assurance program at University of Hawaiʻi West Oʻahu tied for first place in the Hawaiʻi Annual Code Challenge (HACC). Founded at Honolulu CC, the team, called Hawaiʻi Advanced Technology Society (HATS), won $5,000 and the opportunity to interview with Blue Startups and XLR8UH.
HACC was the culmination of the month-long, hackathon-inspired competition designed to engage the local tech community in the modernization of Hawaiʻi state government. The judging and awards ceremony was held on September 24 at the Aloha Tower Marketplace. The winning project, Oʻahu Community Correctional Center Family Visitation Scheduling, provides a sustainable and organized web-based solution for family and friend visitations at the facility.
“Many of our students put an average of 30 hours into the project, with key contributors putting an upwards of 60-80 hours over the course of the last three weeks,” said HATS Lead Project Manager Jayson Hayworth. “We came together as a team to implement and interface three different components of the project to fit the Oʻahu Community Correctional Center Visitation Scheduling’s business needs.”
He continues, “The CENT program gives us a strong foundation to be able to accomplish anything we set our minds towards. The curriculum encourages self-learning and self-discipline while giving students the foundation needed to explore other advanced topics. I think I speak for all of our team members when I say none of this is possible without the entire CENT faculty.”
Twenty-seven teams presented solutions to the HACC judges panel, which included Governor David Y. Ige, Senator Glenn Wakai, state Chief Information Officer (CIO) Todd Nacapuy and UH Vice President of Information Technology and CIO Garret Yoshimi. Solutions were judged on originality, design, sustainability, utility and impact, team collaboration, presentation and delivery, with bonus points for audience’s top choice.
The HACC is the result of collaboration across public and private sectors.
—By Billie Lueder
