2024 CEWIT High School Hackathon

February 9, 2024

Stony Brook University’s Office of Economic Development hosted its first High School Hackathon.  Welcomed within the Center of Excellence in Wireless Information Technology (CEWIT), 65 students from five Long Island school districts took part in a day-long digital competition, utilizing Python, Java, and other coding tools. CEWIT has hosted college-level Hackathons for the past eight years, but this was its first foray geared towards teenagers.

Partnering school districts included Ward Melville, Longwood, Mt. Sinai, Plainview Old Bethpage, and Smithtown. Competing in teams of four, the students developed solutions to challenges in healthcare, digital design, gaming, as well as some innovative Choose Your Own pathways. Upon completion of the challenges, students were provided some helpful tips from Dr. Nicole Leavey (Alda-Certified Facilitator) on how to best communicate their projects to the judges. Judges included Heather Banoub (Stony Brook Government Relations), Steve Wong (Stony Brook Campus Police), Xena Ugrinsky (Pilot Wave Holdings), Miroslav Trajkovic (Zebra), Yun Zhang (Mobileware), Zeyu Dong (Sunrise Technology),and Avish Parmar (Brookhaven National Laboratory).

Supporting partners for the event included a lunch sponsor CEO Yu Sun (Sunrise Technology), and speaker Jonathan Lynch (Softheon), as well as wifi from Intelibs.

Thanks to generous donations from Stony Brook University’s Office of Student Affairs and the Faculty Student Association, all students left the event with t-shirts, socks, backpacks, and other SBU-branded “swag.” Additional prizes were given out, including gift cards to eateries such as Cheesecake Factory, Shake Shack, McDonalds, and Chick-Fil-A.

Organized by Derek O'Connor - Workforce Development Manager (Economic Development)