Five undergraduate students from University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Information and Computer Sciences Department (ICS) won an international hackathon competition, putting their elite computer programming and development skills on display. The team took home $5,000 in cash and services for the win. Another UH Mānoa team won third place, winning $1,200 in cash and services.
The Meteor Hackathon October 15–20 challenged teams to build an impactful application for a cause, a business model, a non-profit or other field. The hackathon was hosted by Meteor Software, a startup that created Meteor, a free and open-source JavaScript web framework.
UH Mānoa teams
Anna Campainha, Daphne Estacio, Jerome Gallego, Michael Gainey and Timothy Huo won first place for “EcoCamino,” an application designed to support the organization of sustainability-related events such as cleanups and workshops that increase environmental awareness among the public.
“Behind every great app is a lot of hard work and communication to meet deadlines and create something special,” said Campainha, an ICS senior. “The hackathon taught me areas that I thrive in versus the areas I need to improve. These are not situations you encounter daily until you’re competing to develop a project and have a team relying on you to do your part.”
Estacio, also an ICS senior, added, “For me, the best thing about joining a hackathon was the self exploration I experienced. Not only did it test the knowledge and the skills that I already have, but it also showed me that I am capable of so much more than I thought.”
Yong Kim, Yeji Han, Kai Hwang and Cheolhoon Choi won third place for “CoKoa,” an application to support organization of safe face-to-face meetings during the pandemic.
All of the students participated in the hackathon as part of an ICS special topics course taught by Professor Philip Johnson. “Hackathons provide a fast-paced development experience in which team communication, creativity, adaptability and hard work are keys to success. These same qualities are highly valued in Hawaiʻi‘s high tech industry. I feel all the students who participated learned important lessons that are difficult to obtain in a traditional classroom setting,” he said.
This program is an example of UH Mānoa’s goals of Enhancing Student Success (PDF) and Excellence in Research: Advancing the Research and Creative Work Enterprise (PDF), two of four goals identified in the 2015–25 Strategic Plan (PDF), updated in December 2020.
