Academics

Hack(H)er413 Turns Five

In its fifth year, Western Massachusetts’ first all-women and nonbinary student hackathon welcomed over 300 programming enthusiasts for 24 hours of innovation and problem-solving

Leading the charge into Women’s History Month, over 300 student programming enthusiasts swarmed the Integrative Learning Center at UMass Amherst Feb. 25-26 for the fifth annual Hack(H)er413 —Western Massachusetts’ first all-women and nonbinary student hackathon — eager to learn, network and pollinate ideas.

Year five of the 24-hour hackathon launched with a welcome from Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences (CICS) dean Laura Haas and a keynote address from Hack(H)er413 founder and CICS alumna Katie House ‘19MS.

“We need the people who create computing systems and use them to reflect the population at large so that it serves all of our needs,” said Haas. “That is why it is so important that you are here today, learning about computing and exploring what it can do, and inspiring us with your creativity and ideas in the process.”

Hack(H)er413 is a student-organized 24-hour hackathon that aims to promote gender and racial diversity in the technology industry by providing free access to interactive workshops, panel discussions and an onsite career fair. The event strives to inspire participants to explore their programming interests regardless of their academic pursuits—the hackathon is open to all majors and skill levels and socioeconomic backgrounds. A sentiment echoed in the final words of Haas’ welcome address, “Remember: computing is fun, computing is important, and computing is for everyone!”

Hack(H)er413 2023 Winners:

Best Pitch/Demonstration
OpenAI Pro Ultra Max
Eric Chen and Junyang Lu

Best User Experience/Product Design Hack
SafeStride
Rishabh Devnani, Sashwat Ganisshan Sumrudhi Jadhav, Aadvik Mishra, Sagnik Pal, Shoubhit Ravi, Anshul Saha and Tanush Savadi

Best Sustainability Hack
Student Rideshare
Melisa Dundar and Vani Gupta

Best Use of Data Hack
Bouba-Kiki Analyzer
Jordan Day

Panera's Hack for a Healthier Happier World
My(Non-Toxic)FitnessPal
Adrianna Crowell, Hillary Dunkley (Smith College),Yewon Kim and Avery Kolenski

Mass State Lottery New Game Challenge

First place
AceIt
Mrunal Kurhade, Prachiti Parkar, Shruti Parvekar and Shreya Siv Varma
Second Place
GUE$$
Carol Ding, Noga Kojokaro, Sydnie Lui and Samantha Walden
Third Place
Buzy Bee Game
Shhreya Anand, Neissa Chery, Macy Graves, Nashita Jalil and Elana Sadok

Best Hardware Hack
POTS Pacer
Aditi Bansal, Saadhvi Raghav and Cynthia Rajeshkanna

Best Use of an AI Model
Artificial Sign Language (ASL)
Emma Azzi, Cyril Bou-Harb, Pooja Patel, Hassan Shah, Mohsin Shah and Ananya Shekhawat

Best Software
Unwind: Relaxed and Healthy Hands
Steven Gao, Archimedes Li, Maggie Li and Christopher Pho

Cutest Hack
Productibunny
Maryam Abuissa (Amherst College), Tina Zhang (Amherst College), Emi Eliason (Amherst College) and Sherry Jiang (Amherst College)

Learn more about all the projects submitted during the fifth annual Hack(H)er413.