Recap of Deep Dive Code-a-Thon 2018

From March 16th through the 18th, the inaugural Deep Dive Code-A-Thon was held. This was a hackathon style competition. For those unfamiliar with hackathons, participants have a set amount of time to work on a prototype, with the goal being a minimum viable product when the deadline is reached. A theme is often provided during hackathons to help kickstart brainstorming and standardize judging.

The coding for the greater good theme this year was “poverty”. Participants were to envision and create apps that would help those seeking to learn more about poverty, or apps to help fight poverty. A total of 9 teams participated this year!

First place and $2000 went to Team DeepSkyBlue: Charley Bickel, John Ng, Alan Shen, and Victor Valverde. They created an Android application called Poverty Trivia. Their app is designed to help open people’s eyes to the realities of poverty in New Mexico and the United States. The app can be downloaded from the Play Store.

The second place team was Team Why-Fi: Kimberly Keller, Erin Scott, Esteban Martinez, and Katelyn/Sam Narum. Access to the internet is vital for those seeking employment, educational opportunities, or healthcare resources. The purpose of their application is to connect those seeking to recycle old laptops, smartphones, tablets with those in need of said devices.

Third place was the Clear Table Team: Blake Azuela, Brendan Sweeny, Snow Nguyen and Alex Alvara. A lack of educational opportunities leads to higher dropout rates, as well as higher unemployment. Their app was designed to help students achieve greater success by increasing communication between parents and teachers, through automatic text message reporting of grades for exams and assignments.

Overall the weekend was a huge success and we are looking forward to hosting the Code-A-Thon again next year!