Hawaii Annual Code Challenge

High School Team Takes Home Top Prizes at the Annual Tech Competition
University of Hawaii-Manoa Students Scoops All Three Places in Coded Solutions Category

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.