David Y. Ige

HONOLULU – T777, a team composed of students from University Laboratory School and Punahou School,

took home first place for the No Code/Low Code Solutions and first place High School categories at the Hawaiʻi

Annual Code Challenge’s (HAAC) Judging and Presentation Day, which was held over the weekend. In total,

the team took home $5,500, along with IT application certification classes at Pacific Center for Advanced

Technology Training (PCATT), located at Honolulu Community College.

T777 developed a proof-of-concept app to modernize the Department of Education’s Legislative Tracker, which

is used to track bills and testimonies during the legislative session.

A team of students from the University of Hawaii-Manoa, bruh2023, took home first place for the Coded

Solutions category and $4,000. Bruh2023 created a solution to the Office of Enterprise Technology Services’

challenge of creating a URL shortener that could be used as trusted short links in external and internal

communications by State employees.

“The Hawai‘i Annual Code Challenge has become one of the premier tech events in the state since it

began seven years ago,” said Gov. David Ige, who first conceived of the idea for the competition. “I am

proud of all the teams who have participated over the years. It proves we have the talent and

imagination right here in the islands to find real-life tech solutions to government challenges, and we

thank our many community partners for their support. Congratulations to all the winners and

participants in this year’s event.”

“The judges were truly impressed by the quality of the solutions created during the HACC.

Participants used their time well to combine existing skills with what they learned during the HACC to

create great solutions. We are proud that the competition continues to serve as a launching pad for

participants in Hawaii to pursue a career in technology,” added Doug Murdock, Office of Enterprise

Technology Services Chief Information Officer.

The winners:

Forty-four teams were formed after the tech competition kicked off on Oct. 15 After the technical review, 17

teams moved on to the presentation phase of the competition, which took place on Saturday, Nov. 5. This

competition, inspired by Gov. Ige, is in its 7th year. More than 1,000 participants have been part of the HACC

since it began and more than $51-thousand in prizes have been awarded.

The HACC generates proof-of-concepts by student, amateur and professional coders to benefit community and

State agencies at the idea-phase level, feeding into Hawaiʻi’s vibrant innovation ecosystem to promote

solutions for community resilience, professional development, local job creation and building local businesses.

The HACC breaks the mold of a traditional hackathon, which typically takes place over a single day or

weekend. The HACC provides an expanded multi-week timeframe meant to encourage interaction between

community teams and state department personnel, ultimately resulting in sustainable solutions that are

appropriately matched with technologies and platforms in use or being considered by the state. Beginning at

the HACC Kickoff, community participants form teams and select from a list of challenges. Challenges were

proposed by the Department of Education, Office of Planning and Sustainable Development, Office of

Enterprise Technology Services, University of Hawaii-Manoa and NIC Hawaii.

Gov. David Ige’s vision for the HACC when it began in 2015 included providing an opportunity for civic

engagement with the local technology community in modernizing state functions and services for a more effective, efficient and open government. In honor of the fifth year, virtual workshops were held outside of the HACC season beginning in April, to prepare for the competition, including workshops tailored for educators.

The HACC has been nationally recognized with the State IT Innovation of the Year award by StateScoop, the

leading government IT media company in the nation’s capital.

Sponsors of the event included: Supporters included: AT&T, eWorld Enterprise Solutions, Inc., Google Cloud,

Hawaii Data Collaborative, Hawaii USA, Microsoft, NIC Hawaii, Salesforce, Transform Hawaii Government and

Verizon. Supporters included: DOE Computer Science Team, Hawaii Pacific University, Hawaii Technology

Development Corporation, IMAG Foundation, PCATT, UH-Manoa Information and Computer Sciences Dept.,

and Unisys.

The HACC is a State of Hawaiʻi event, coordinated by the Office of Enterprise Technology Services. For more

information: hacc.hawaii.gov

###

Media Contact:

Janet Chiu

HACC Project Manager/Sr. Technical Analyst

Office of Enterprise Technology Services, State of Hawaii

[email protected]