High school, college teams create solutions to modernize community services.
Two high school teams and a team from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa took the top honors at the Eighth Hawaii Annual Code Challenge (HACC) on Nov. 18 on the UH West Oʻahu campus.
The HACC 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 four-week period.
The HACC was created to encourage engagement between Hawaii 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 our state.
Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke told the teams gathered during the presentation and judging event that their efforts can make people’s lives better.
“In this competition, you have the opportunity to help address some of the state’s most challenging issues such as homelessness and housing,” Lieutenant Governor 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 Hawaii.
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, Maui, 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 is from a mix of 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.
The 2023 HACC was sponsored by the State of Hawaii Office of Enterprise Technology Services (ETS) in partnership with the University of Hawaii. 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.”
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
| Challenge | Team Name | Captain | Affiliation | Advisor | HS Results | Open Results | ||
| Affordable Healthcare | MHS HAKK | Cassidy Ibanez | Mililani High School | Blaise Hanagami | 1st | |||
| Affordable Healthcare | T777+ | Joshua Li | Mixed High School | Tiger Li | 2nd | 1st No Code | ||
| ITS Ask Us | Hōʻemi | Brandon Dorde | Waipahu High School | Cindy Takara | 3rd | 3rd No Code | ||
| Marine Debris | Hiapo | Karen Sabog | Solo | 2nd No Code | ||||
| ITS Ask Us | DarkMode | Micah Tilton | UH Manoa | 2nd Code | ||||
| Lahaina Project | VENGEN | Ethan Chee | UH Manoa | 1st Code | ||||
| Marine Debris | Frosty Ice | Giorgio Tan | UH Manoa | 3rd Code |
HACC 2023 – included 5 challenges:
• University of Hawaii – ITS Ask Us Challenge
• Tyler Hawaii – Affordable Healthcare
• Hawaii Pacific University CMDR (Center for Marine Debris Research) – Large Marine Debris Reporting, Dispatching
• Maui Institute of Art and Technology – Lahaina Digital Twin Project
• Zero Waste Oahu – Reusable Takeout Program App
Sponsors for the event include Transform Hawaii Government, Hawaiian Airlines, Verizon, Google for Government, Tyler Technologies, Microsoft, eWorld Enterprise Solutions, Salesforce, Hawaii Data Collaborative, AT&T and AWS.
Partners include IMAG Foundation, the Hawaii Department of Education Computer Science Team, UH Mānoa Information & Computer Sciences, Hawaii Pacific University, and the Hawaii Technology Develop Corporation.
For more information, visit https://hacc.hawaii.gov.