The School of Computer Sciences and Engineering and VOXO, Inc. collaborated to host the 2024 Hatchathon finale on Nov. 12. The theme for this year’s competition was “Reclaiming Time with Generative AI.” “Cohesion” won first place. The AI helps with the easy creation, documentation, organization, and export of different data. The event was attended by competitors, different company mentors, and audience members.
The Hatchathon is a hackathon that challenges students to use their technical skills to solve real-world problems. It is a week-long competition and the competitors were judged by a three-minute demonstration of their team’s solution to the judges.
The event took place in Scianna Hall with the help of the School of Polymer Engineering and the College of Business and Economic Development. There were 83 total competitors with 20 teams. The event sought the use of different disciplines and required competitors to blend technology with business strategy and marketing skills.
“Amazing ideas are being developed by students across campus,” James Wilcox, the director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, said. “A lot of computing science and computer engineering students participated but we also saw students from biological sciences, physics, and business who worked around the theme of the competition this year.”
The first-place winners of the 2024 Hatchathon were Smarika Neupane, Sugam Panthi, and Saphal Poudyal, who worked on the AI ‘Cohesion.’ The second-place winners were Aaditya Bajgain, Barsat Khadka, Rashib Khanal, Prasant Koirala, and Kshitiz Neupane, who worked on PrepAI. The AI offers personalized study planners, flashcards, and quizzes to students to make study sessions more efficient. The third-place winners were Serene Aryal, Sushant Aryal, Prastab Ghimire, Rupak Raut, and Nihal Shah with the AI Samantha. The AI syncs Outlook and Google Calendar to help find a time for team meetings and let users stay organized. Bibhav Adhikari, Bhargav Chataut, Samip Devkota, Benjamin Hartley, and Arjav Lamsal won the People’s Choice Award with Seymore’s Seemore. It is a search extension for USM’s website that allows users to search for information within the college website.
The first-place winners were awarded $2500. The second-place winners were awarded $1500 and the third-place winners were awarded $750. The winners of the People’s Choice Award won $500.
The students had positive feedback on the event and expressed that it allowed them the opportunity to not only challenge themselves with their programming skills but also provided them an opportunity to meet with company mentors.
“I am excited to see what my friends make,” Stephen Joshi, a competitor, said. “I am also excited to present my project. We have put in a lot of effort and spent nights working on the project.”
This was the second annual Hatchathon. The students had the opportunity to be around many people from the industry and to present their ideas. Many students utilized the opportunity to network with industry mentors and connect with different companies.
