Fourteen teams comprised of computer science and business students took up residence in the Grossman School of Business this past Saturday for an 8-hour collaborative coding marathon to compete for the top prize in one of three coding challenges in this year’s UVM Hackathon. Organized by SWiCS (the Society of Women in Computer Science ), CS Crew, the UVM Department of Computer Science, and the Grossman School of Business, the event featured over 100 students of all skill levels working together to develop unique solutions in response to prompts inspired by real-world scenarios.
The 2025 Hackathon Organizing Committee included students Nina Braddock, Peter Moiseyev, Rachel Rose, and Ethan Ryen along with Grossman School of Business Event Coordinator Ellery Hunt, and Employer Outreach & Professional Development Specialist Katy Reed.
What is a hackathon?
Hackathons are team-based problem-solving events that take place in a limited window of time. Teams choose between a selection of prompts that allow them to leverage the full creativity of their members. During the event, mentors are available to support teams and plenty of food is provided to fuel the teams’ endeavors. At the end of the day, teams share their projects with each other and the judges who then select the best projects for the top prize for each challenge.
This year's challenges:
1) Personalized Learning: To help keep students stay engaged and motivated through the school year, this challenge called for teams to develop an accessible and intuitive platform that gamifies the learning process to make studying interactive, rewarding, and fun.
The winning team: Jes Bennett, Shiloh Chiu, James Davenport, Hannah Deyst, Beau Willim, and Rustum Zia
2) Moving Site: At the start and end of each semester, students face the chaos of moving, often having to leave useful items behind because of space limitations. This challenge tasked teams with reducing waste and improving moving efficiency by creating a platform to connect departing students with incoming students to create an intuitive digital marketplace to trade, rent, or sell everything from furniture to textbooks.
The winning team: “Bash Pro Shop” with Jordan Bourdeau, River Bumpas, Christopher Jepson, Caroline Palecek, Levi Pare, and Surya Malik
3) Rally Cat Cupboard: This challenge tasked teams to design a user-friendly inventory management system and related database to better track donations and inventory for Rally Cat's Cupboard, UVM's on-campus food pantry.
The winning team: Amanda Barth, Luke Cirne, Thomas Hull, Spenser Kramer, and Bea Millie
2025 Hackathon Image Gallery