Designed to empower young women leaders in technical fields, the 12-hour Women in Informatics (WINFO) Hackathon provides a fun and interactive environment in which to explore computing with fellow students and create applications to solve information challenges.
This year's event attracted 95 attendees from across the University of Washington along with 30 mentors who helped teams with their projects. Judges included Scott Barker (iSchool), Nam-ho Park (iSchool), Negin Dahya (iSchool), and Tammarrian Rogers (Microsoft). They judged the projects based on the quality of the user experience and functionality, originality and impact, and technical difficulty.
WINFO is an iSchool registered student group that sponsors events throughout the year to showcase the power and value of the Informatics degree to women. Their leadership decide on Hackathon themes, find sponsors and judges and manage logistics for the event.
Additional sponsorship this year created an opportunity for two new awards: Best Creativity in the Spirit of Walt Disney and Best Use of Algorithmia API. First place winners will dine with the CIO of Alaska Airlines and second place winners will enjoy a Starbucks Reserve Roastery tour and tasting. Additional prizes included Amazon gift cards, movie tickets, and WINFO mugs.
Winners
First place: .Cycle
Members: Tianai Zhao, Justine Edrozo, Domenica Mata, Saki Uwagawa, Adriana Vining
"We created a website that connects those who want to provide support for homeless women and women who are in need of menstruation support. Women in need of support can search for shelters within their general proximity and view the inventory of feminine hygiene products in individual shelters. For shelters, there is a feature that allows them to update their inventory of feminine products daily so women can find shelters that have the products they need."
Second place: Solar Bear
Members: Sam Gehman, Joshua Keating, Gina Lee, Elisabeth Chin
"Solar Bear is an iOS application (written in Objective C) aimed at kids ages 7-12 to instill environmental consciousness, introduce "green" habits, and raise awareness of clean energy alternatives. The goal of the "game" is to maintain Bearnard's comfort levels by lowering CO2 emissions and keeping his environment clean. The solar panel, or the "clean energy factory," generates clean energy to keep CO2 levels low. Kids can earn solar points by keeping the solar panel out in the sun to generate clean energy or by removing trash from Bearnard's water. If the energy factory is not in use or Bearnard's environment is not kept clean, then CO2 levels will increase, smog will become more apparent, the iceberg will shrink, and Bearnard will begin to panic."
Honorable mention: Open Door
Members: Brad Holland, Isabella Spaletta, Marisa Nanakul, Natasha Dietzler, Katrina Ezis
"We focus on providing accessibility data for those with mobility impairments. We found a mobile application, Wheelmaps, that already pointed out the locations that needed data on their accessibility. Our goal is to incentivize people to contribute accessibility data to this database. We thought the best way to do that was through gamification. Our web application rewards our users for contributing to this meaningful cause."
Honorable mention: aWear
Members: Jessie Peterson, Vincent Jonany, Antony Zhong, Morgan Evans
"We made a companion app that gets data from Microsoft band, defines what is irregular, and offers alerts. It tracks biometrics of those you care about and syncs it with the monitor-ER mobile app. The monitor-ER can also set preferences for the mobile app to start alerting him/her as the live data is updated. It also has a quick navigation button to alert medical response. As for the one being monitored, he/she can also see the data and have access to a quick navigation button to alert medical response, or emergency contacts."
Best Creativity in the Spirit of Walt Disney: Shrini Sees
Members: Shrinivas Ramanath, Walter Ceder, Irene W, Ivy Wong
"Our project is a package that can be installed on any website to display emotional body language feedback as posters type their comment. The comments are evaluated with an algorithm that takes into account the positivity, irony, subjectivity etc. The comments will be shown in a descending order with the most positive comment on top."
Best Use of Algorithmia API: Wiki Study Buddy
Members: Jack Armstrong, Raquel Van Hofwegen
"Do you ever have issues starting on a school project? Upload your text, and Wiki Study Buddy will help you start! Wiki Study Buddy allows you to copy/paste your text or upload a file containing the information. From that text, Wiki Study Buddy will generate a related list of wiki articles and summaries that may be of use to you. From these articles, you can find inspiration to start your school assignment."
Sponsors
Platinum Sponsors: Alaska Airlines, Amazon, Avanade, Disney, Fast Enterprises, Intel, Microsoft, Redfin
Gold Sponsors: Algorithmia, AT&T
Silver Sponsors: Google, WTIA
Bronze Sponsors: Concur, Starbucks