肉肉传媒 hosts inaugural Hackathon for Social Good

KENNESAW, Ga. | Apr 7, 2021

肉肉传媒鈥檚 (CCSE) recently hosted its inaugural Hackathon for Social Good, allowing students to apply their knowledge and technical know-how to solve societal problems.

鈥淭his was really an opportunity for our students to use their acquired skills and make an impact on some area of social good and, in return, better their communities,鈥� said Dawn Tatum, event coordinator and director of CCSE partnerships and engagements. 鈥淭his was a great occasion to unite the University through a common cause and give all of our students valuable experience in the process.鈥�

Unlike the Hackathon held every fall, which is open to students studying within CCSE, the Hackathon for Social Good was open to students of all majors. Throughout the weeklong virtual event, students used their skills to tackle challenges posed by sponsoring companies. This year鈥檚 challenge sponsors 鈥� Visa, BlackRock and HPCC Systems 鈥� each presented one challenge in the technology or business area that was related to an area of social good that they wished to target. Groups of student teams worked to present solutions to company problems, including using data sets to create a risk score for missing children in Georgia and exploring a mock website with deficiencies to protect against hackers. Another challenge urged students to build an environmental, sustainability and governance (ESG) themed investing app. Students presented their solutions to the industry sponsors at the end of the event.

Students also listened to speaker sponsors throughout the week, including Shaw Industries and Kimberly-Clark, who presented on various topics to bring an awareness to areas of social good along with KSU鈥檚 , LexisNexis Risk Solutions, BlackRock and ATLytiCS. Assurant was the event鈥檚 giving sponsor.

鈥淭hrough the Hackathon for Social Good, I was able to see how some of the skills I've learned like user interface design and working with datasets are actually applied in the real world,鈥� said Suzan Manasreh, a computer science major. 鈥淏eyond that, it was incredibly fulfilling to see that these skills could actually be used to make an immediate impact in the community.鈥�

The Hackathon for Social Good also served as a philanthropic effort to benefit KSU鈥檚 CARE Services, which received a portion of sponsorship money. Established in 2013, CARE Services provides support to KSU students who have experienced homelessness, food insecurity and/or the foster care system.

鈥淭he proceeds will be so beneficial to support CARE鈥檚 mission as we work to ensure all students can realize a healthy, stable and dignified life both academically and professionally,鈥� said Marcy Stidum, director of CARE Services. 鈥淐ARE is always looking for a variety of ways to partner with our campus community so we can reach and serve more students who could benefit from our services, and as a result of the Hackathon, some of the sponsors have reached out to CARE to see how they could further partner with us.鈥�

A total of nine teams were awarded prizes on the final day of the Hackathon for Social Good:

Blackrock

1^st place: Suzan Manasreh, Abram Poole and Jairrel Waymond

2^nd place: Munia Rahman and Ashiv Sharma

3^rd place: Karen Dsouza and Lisa Stanovski

HPCC Systems

1^st place: Neel Patel, Yagna Patel and Zach Stover

2^nd place: Lauren Pope

3^rd place: Taylor Blade, David Sousley and Mia Wimbish

Visa

1^st place: Shravan Cheekati and Caden Robertson

2^nd place: David Blunk, Nico Capparelli and Andrew Goeden

3^rd place: Christopher Filli, Kenneth Karlinski and Jade Lamoreaux

鈥� Josh Milton

肉肉传媒

肉肉传媒 hosts inaugural Hackathon for Social Good

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