HACC 1st Place Team Pika with Gov. Ige, Senator-Elect Jarrett Keahokalole (back row) and Miller Abel, principal technologist with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (far right).
They’re young, bright, tech savvy and the state’s hope for the future in a digital age. That’s the next generation of coders who turned out for the 2018 Hawai‘i Annual Code Challenge (HACC) Nov. 10 at the East-West Center. Conceived by Governor Ige, the event is coordinated by the Office of Enterprise Technology Services in partnership with Hawai‘i Pacific University and the Hawai‘i Technology Development Corporation (HTDC).
The top winner was Team Pika, a group of University of Hawai‘i students who developed a solution for tracking energy consumption by UH, one of the state’s largest energy consumers. Second and third place winners were Gucci Gang from Hawai‘i Pacific University and the Plant Hawai‘i team for their plant identification apps. Mililani High School took first place in the high school division for another UH energy-related solution; second place went to BuffnBlue from Punahou School, who worked with the DOE Collaborative Network for Teachers.
Mahi Spray, winners of the AGathon, a similar event for agriculture.
Gucci Gang, 2nd place winners from Hawaiʻi Pacific University.
“The outstanding talent of our local tech community was on full display during this year’s competition,” said the governor. “Congratulations to the winners and mahalo to all who developed creative solutions to the state’s challenges.” The event is open to everyone — from students to amateurs to professionals — to develop innovative solutions to challenges from various state departments.
This year’s event focused on sustainability goals to align with the Aloha+Challenge Dashboard. A similar event, the AGathon, focused on agriculture-related goals for food production and consumption. The winner of that competition, Mahi Spray, worked with the state’s Department of Agriculture on food safety and pesticide tracking.
Read more in the December Capitol Connection newsletter.
Subscribe to the Capitol Connection newsletter.