UH students build winning mobile apps at the AT&T-UH Hackathon

Gov. David Ige, UH President David Lassner among judges

University of Hawaiʻi
Contact:
Karen K Fujii, (808) 956-9393
Communications Officer, Office of the VP for IT & CIO
Posted: Feb 14, 2015


HONOLULU – Governor David Ige, University of Hawai’i President David Lassner and City and County of Honolulu Chief Information Officer Mark Wong spent their Valentine’s Day afternoon judging the AT&T Mobile App Hackathon. The 24-hour competition encourages the free exchange of knowledge and expertise that supports community-driven learning.

The event was open not only to UH students, but also to developers, designers, entrepreneurs or anyone interested in technology.  Each group was carefully balanced with a mixture of creative talent and development skills.  The teams created their Android or iOS apps from conception to implementation.  Each team had three minutes to present their finished mobile app to the panel of judges.

Team “Hike Aloha” won the grand prize of $5,000 in gift cards.  Team Voggy, Team Robots versus Witches and Team Dodge also won $500 in their respective categories.

“Hawaiʻi’s students showed tremendous talent, creativity and initiative at this event,” said Governor David Ige. “We didn’t have an event like this when I was an electrical engineering student at the university.  I am excited for today’s students who have a variety of opportunities such as the Hackathon, to hone their skills and become leaders in our field.”

The Hackathon was held at ‘Iolani School’s Sullivan Center and attracted more than 100 participants, a much larger turn out than last year’s inaugural event.

"We are thrilled by this year's turnout, and excited about the prospects for future Hawaiʻi Hackathons,” said Carol Tagayun, AT&T Director of External Affairs.  “Participation from leaders such as Governor David Ige, President David Lassner and the City's Chief Information Officer Mark Wong speaks volumes.  We also want to acknowledge the collaboration that made this event a success.  It bodes well for the future of Hawaiʻi's thriving tech community and for the state." 

"The hackathon provides a great opportunity for our students and others to challenge themselves outside of the classroom and collaborate with industry partners and work with local developers," said UH President David Lassner.

AT&T sponsored this event to create a sustainable environment for aspiring and seasoned developers to deploy a mobile app with a website backend that is fully hosted in the cloud.  The event also aims to help entrepreneurs and startups build mobile apps.