Students earn recognition at 8th annual Hawai‘i Code Challenge

Two high school teams and a team from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa took the top honors at the Eighth Hawaiʻi Annual Code Challenge on Nov. 18 at the University of Hawai‘i West Oʻahu campus.

The contest solicits challenges from state departments and community groups and asks student, amateur and professional coders to develop technology applications to help solve specific problems during a 4-week period.

The event was created to encourage engagement between Hawai‘i residents and the local technology community to modernize state functions and services for a more effective, efficient and open government. Another objective of the hackathon is to strengthen the pipeline of the IT workforce and expand the tech industry in the state.

“In this competition, you have the opportunity to help address some of the state’s most
challenging issues such as homelessness and housing,” Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke said. “Using coding, you are asked to identify a problem, find ways to help address the issue, and make it easier for the end user to utilize the application. What you folks do can improve people’s lives and being here speaks volumes about who you are as individuals.”

Mililani High School team MHS HAKK took first place in the high school category and a $1,500 prize for their work to develop a solution for a challenge to help underinsured or uninsured individuals find and access affordable healthcare in Hawai‘i. Cassidy Ibanez is the team captain and members include Courtney Hisamoto, Kyle Bain, Nolan Carlisle, Miles Hackeny, Toby James, Kyler Ching and Jourdan Hung.

In the coded category, first place and a $4,000 prize went to team VENGEN for their design to create a web portal to facilitate civic engagement around rebuilding Lahaina, including surveys, forums, sharing design concepts with visual and data models for economic, environmental analysis. Ethan Chee is the captain of the UH Mānoa student team and members include Timothy Huo, Michelle Leano, Eda Cadiena and Marissa Halim.

In the low/no code category, team T777+ took first place and a $4,000 prize for their
response to the affordable healthcare challenge. The team, with members from several high schools, also took second place in the high school category. Joshua Li is the team captain and members include Brix Kozuki, Jacob Osada, Max Chin and Leo Zhang.

By the Numbers

• 187 participants
• 64 high school students
• 39 teams created
• 26 projects submitted
• 22 code-based and four no/low code projects
• 21 finalists

Hawaiʻi Annual Code Challenge 2023 – included 5 challenges:

• University of Hawai‘i – ITS Ask Us Challenge
• Tyler Hawai‘i – Affordable Healthcare
• Hawaiʻi Pacific University Center for Marine Debris Research – Large
  Marine Debris Reporting, Dispatching
• Maui Institute of Art and Technology – Lahaina Digital Twin Project
• Zero Waste Oʻahu – Reusable Takeout Program App

The 2023 Hawaiʻi Annual Code Challenge was sponsored by the State of Hawai‘i Office of Enterprise Technology Services in partnership with the University of Hawai‘i.

State Chief Information Officer Doug Murdock said the team’s submissions were presented in-person for the first time since the 2020 restriction and judged by a group of technology professionals.

“We were very pleased with the quality and creativity of the submissions this year and having the presentations live, in-person added to the excitement,” Murdock said. “These teams took the challenges to heart and did their best to provide solutions.”