By the SHS Hackathon Team
A group of middle and high school students recently immersed themselves in the world of coding, collaborating to find innovative solutions to real-world problems in the annual Hackathon.
Using Scratch, Python, and website development tools, students embraced this year’s theme: “AI for Social Good.” Their challenge was to design a product that would take advantage of AI technology to benefit humankind.
This riveting, seven-hour event was organized by the Girls Who Code and Web Development Clubs at Sharon High School. The event is in its sixth year and drew nearly 50 students on March 12.
Team “Chipos” with Julian Trout, Hoa Vo, Victor Pan, and Vincent Yu earned first place for their project where they developed an AI application around the ethical use of artificial intelligence in education with the use of OpenAI’s API. Their project, Schoolo-GPT allows for general advice for students but prohibits users from doing unethical things, like having it write essays, and do homework assignments for them.
Arjav Shah and Balin Asklar-Coles collaborated to combine the skills of multiple bots. Arjav and Balin explained how excited they are to take some creative risks at their first hackathon to see how much they have learned from the process. They earned second place for their project!
Team “Dr. Kenner’s Mess”, Sophie Liang, Saachi Badgi, Mihika Singh, and Emma Liu, explored using tech to minimize food waste. Recognition tech, such as cameras, can determine how much of school lunches are thrown away. Using data, the program will analyze what kids like to eat and identify recipes to make the best use of leftovers. Their project earned third place.
Using Python, Srivibhu Piratla, Hamza Ahmed, Neev Lodha, and Anish Reddy Koduru developed a tool to detect kidney disease.
Maya Rajaguru, Reagan Wray, Zoya Rana, and Prium Jain created a project to analyze symptoms to determine an illness. A person can enter their symptoms to discover a diagnosis.
Several students focused on education. For example, Sampreetha Sririam and Anvi Sarmah devised a tool to help people learn about states using flashcards with information about the environment and crises for each area.
Mihir Shetty, Aungshul Saha, and Arnav Garg created a chatbot that will provide information in response to questions.
The event was made possible by a slew of supporters: Big Y, BJ’s, Stop & Shop, Walgreens, and Shaws, who contributed by providing beverages, chips, and gift cards for the event. The Girls Who Code organization and Sharon PTSO funded the event with prizes and pizza.
Judges who gave their time and energy to participate included: Riley Forster SHS ‘19/Carnegie Mellon ‘23, Sean MacArthur, Ruth Seltzer, Geoff Gerrietts, and Siva Ponnaganti.
Student leaders from the clubs on the Hackathon Organizing Committee include Yashwant Ponnaganti, Apurva Varigonda, Ankita Varigonda, Jenny Sand, Maksim Straus, Daniela Yablon, and Jessica Li.
Mrs. Jolicoeur and Mrs. Newman advise the clubs. Students can learn more about the event at https://hackathon.shsdevs.com/.
