Dual Major Undergrad Places First With Her Team in National Hackathon
Earlier this month, Computer Science and Computer Engineering and Mathematical Sciences student Ananya Vangoor had the honors in competing — and placing — in this year’s national CodeForGood Hackathon hosted by JP Morgan Chase & Co.
After passing through prerequisite coding tests, an interview and a selection process of hundreds of other applicants, Vangoor was invited to JP Morgan Chase’s campus in Plano, Texas, where she took part in two days of seminars, networking and problem solving in the company of other students from across the country.
Vangoor posted on her LinkedIn after the event, that “it was a weekend filled with productive coding, lots of food, and to cap it all off, we emerged as winners of our organization.”
Leading up to the final day of the event, Vangoor was placed into a team of six other students and an expert mentor to tackle problem statements made by a panel of real-world organizations.
“Our [team’s] mission was to lend our technical skills to aid a non-profit organization in overcoming a challenging issue,” Vangoor said, “and we had the honor of working closely with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).”
Following 24 continuous hours of coding, back-to-back communications with MADD and seven rounds of judging, her team won first in their category.
CodeForGood is part of JP Morgan Chase & Co.’s Social Good Hackathons, where students are invited work alongside employees to apply their knowledge in building prototypes that “help social good organizations to better serve their constituents.” Social Good Hackathons take place in person or virtually across multiple cities of Argentina, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Students enrolled in a bachelors degree programs are eligible to apply to be in the hackathon and can sign up for future communications of next year’s competition on JP Morgan Chase & Co.’s website.
This story also appeared in the University of Arkansas News publication.