Hawaii Annual Code Challenge

Virtual Competition Held Over the weekend

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 25, 2020

HONOLULU –  More than 140 people attended the Hawaii Annual Code Challenge competition that was held virtually over the weekend.  OverEasi, a team from the University of Hawaii, took home the top prize of $4,000.  The team proposed a solution for a challenge by NIC-Hawaii, called COVID-19 Chatbot, which asked participants to effectively design and deliver a chatbot that could quickly share up-to-date information and encourage desired healthy behaviors.

Mililani High School team DFE took home the high school category prize of $500 for their solution to a challenge proposed by the Office of Enterprise Technology Services, which asks the participants to find a way that would present the State Information Technology Portfolio to the public visually.

Winners:

1st Place $4,000:  OverEasi – COVID-19 Chatbot

2nd Place $2,000:  GameTheSystem – UH Security

3rd Place $1000:  Trigeeks – UH Security

High School $500:  DFE (Mililani High School) – IT Visualization

People’s Choice Award:  OverEasi – COVID-19 Chatbot 

“I’m proud of all of the participants and applaud their efforts in putting forth creative and imaginative solutions to some of the state’s most significant challenges. The level of participation is a testament that the pandemic and the need to pivot to a virtual event has not curbed the excitement and enthusiasm of our participants,” said Gov. David Ige.

“It was exciting to see all of the innovative solutions and the talented teams right here in Hawaii. We hope to work with the winning teams to further develop their proof-of-concepts and implement them,” said Doug Murdock, Office of Enterprise Technology Services Chief Information Officer added.

Twenty-six teams were formed after the tech competition kicked off four weeks ago.  After the technical review, 18 teams moved on to the presentation phase of the competition, which took place on Saturday, Nov. 21.  This competition, inspired by Gov. Ige, is in its fifth year.

The HACC generated proof-of-concepts by student, amateur and professional coders to benefit community and State agencies to support sustainability at the idea-phase level, feeding into Hawai’i’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 Human Services, Hawaii State Archives, NIC Hawaii, Office of Enterprise Technology Services, University of Hawaii and University of Hawaii Information Technology Services.

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 to were held outside of the HACC season, beginning in April to prepare for the competition, including workshops tailored for educators.

The HACC is 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 Transform Hawai‘i Government, Hawaii USA, Microsoft, NIC-Hawaii, AT&T, Google Cloud, Hawaii Data Collaborative, revacomm, and Speridian Technologies.  Supporters include IMAG Foundation, PCATT, The Office of Rep. Mark Nakashima, and Hawaii Technology Development Corporation.

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