April 29, 2024
In addition to learning in the classroom, students in the field of technology have opportunities to build and showcase their skills at events. Ninety students had this opportunity at the 10th annual SteelHacks hackathon on March 29 and 30, hosted by SCI in the Information Sciences Building.
SteelHacks is an annual hackathon which attracts hundreds of students from colleges and universities across the country. Over the course of a weekend, students apply their skills in computing, information, and design by hacking and creating new technologies. Mackenzie Ball, director of outreach and alumni engagement at SCI, founded SteelHacks in partnership with the Computer Science Club in 2014.
“SteelHacks helps to prepare students for a career in tech by having to create a technical project in a short period of time, as well as prepare a presentation to pitch to judges their entrepreneurial idea, value, marketability, and user experience,” said Ball. “These are all important skills to have students practice to prepare them for the real world and their future careers, thus improving the technical workforce and therefore the field of technology.”
First-place was awarded to Iris: Natural Language Browser Navigation, a project designed to use natural language-controlled software to help visually impaired users navigate the internet. The winning team members included Andre Nguyen (SCI ‘24), Kenny Han (SCI ‘25), and Julian Alamo-Rosas (SCI ‘25).
Over the years, over 1,300 students have participated in SteelHacks. SteelHacks has seen a variety of groundbreaking technical projects in its lifetime.
“I think SteelHacks is a unique and special event that I have been proud to create, direct, and be a part of the last 10 years,” remarked Ball. “It is special to see how creative and innovative our students are and how they are able to create truly unique mobile apps, websites, robots, games, and more in just the course of a weekend!”
Learn more about SteelHacks and the 2024 participant projects!
--Alyssa Morales
--Photos by Mansi Patel
