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Hack(H)er413 Turns Five

Student taking a picture of another student holding a frame that reads: "I beelong!"

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 February 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), Sherry Jiang (Amherst College)  

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