{"id":212641,"date":"2025-03-24T13:06:51","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T23:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=212641"},"modified":"2025-03-24T13:06:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T23:06:51","slug":"switch-icspark-hackathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/03\/24\/switch-icspark-hackathon\/","title":{"rendered":"HS<\/abbr> students tackle real-world problems in inaugural hackathon"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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First place team from Campbell High School<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thirty-five high school students from seven Oʻahu<\/span> schools put their coding skills to the test in the first-ever SWITCH x ICSpark Hackathon on March 15. The competition was organized by University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa students to inspire Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s next generation of computing professionals. SWITCH (Supporting Wellness in Technology Computing Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>) and ICSpark are registered independent organizations in UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa’s Department of Information and Computer Sciences<\/a> in the College of Natural Sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Second place team from Kalani High School<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over four hours, 11 teams developed software solutions addressing real-world challenges in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>, focusing on cultural, environmental and health-related issues. Participants tackled topics such as sustainable tourism, Hawaiian culture, carbon footprint, supporting local businesses, health literacy and mental health awareness through web and mobile applications.<\/p>\n

“We wanted the problem statements to reflect real issues that impact our community,” said Jing Zheng, hackathon organizer and SWITCH president. “By focusing on challenges relevant to Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>, we hoped to inspire students to think critically about the problems around them and use technology as a tool for meaningful change.”<\/p>\n

Problem solving, creativity<\/h2>\n
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Third place team from Kalani High School<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Campbell High School\u2019s Saber Codahz took first place, followed by Kalani Falcons 2 in second and Byte Us in third, both teams from Kalani High. The event welcomed both beginners and experienced coders, emphasizing problem solving and creativity.<\/p>\n

“It was a great event, both because it was exclusively for high school students, and the length and scope of it wasn\u2019t overwhelming,” said Michael Ida, Kalani High math and computer science teacher, and coach of the Kalani Falcons 2 team. “Students who hadn\u2019t participated in a hackathon before, or even those with next to no coding experience, could feel comfortable participating. Our students, without exception, had a great time and were energized, seeing how the skills that they\u2019re learning in my classes can be used to create something useful and of value to others.”<\/p>\n

Organizers hope the hackathon will encourage more students to pursue careers in technology while fostering innovation to benefit local communities.<\/p>\n

“We wanted to create an event where students could see the real impact technology can have on their communities while gaining hands-on experience,” said Briana Lee, hackathon organizer and ICSpark vice president. “Seeing their creativity and problem-solving skills come to life in just a few hours was truly inspiring.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Participants tackled topics such as sustainable tourism, Hawaiian culture, carbon footprint and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[308,541,484,1466,568,313,9],"class_list":["post-212641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-college-of-natural-sciences","tag-computer-science","tag-information-and-computer-science","tag-manoa-enhancing-student-success","tag-natural-science","tag-stem","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212641"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212653,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212641\/revisions\/212653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}