Office of Enterprise Technology Services

High School, College Teams Create Solutions to Modernize Community Services

HONOLULU – Two high school teams and a team from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa took the top honors at the Eighth Hawaii Annual Code Challenge (HACC)  on Nov. 18 on the UH West Oʻahu campus.

The HACC solicits challenges from state departments and community groups and asks student, amateur and professional coders to develop technology applications to help solve specific problems during a four-week period.

The HACC was created to encourage engagement between Hawai‘i residents and the local technology community to modernize state functions and services for a more effective, efficient, and open government. Another objective of the hackathon is to strengthen the pipeline of the IT workforce and expand the tech industry in our state.

Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke told the teams gathered during the presentation and judging event that their efforts can make people’s lives better.

“In this competition, you have the opportunity to help address some of the state’s most challenging issues such as homelessness and housing,” Lieutenant Governor Luke said. “Using coding, you are asked to identify a problem, find ways to help address the issue, and make it easier for the end user to utilize the application. What you folks do can improve people’s lives and being here speaks volumes about who you are as individuals.”

Mililani High School team MHS HAKK took first place in the high school category and a $1,500 prize for their work to develop a solution for a challenge to help underinsured or uninsured individuals find and access affordable healthcare in Hawai‘i.

Cassidy Ibanez is the team captain and members include Courtney Hisamoto, Kyle Bain, Nolan Carlisle, Miles Hackney, Toby James, Kyler Ching and Jourdan Hung.

In the coded category, first place and a $4,000 prize went to team VENGEN for their design to create a web portal to facilitate civic engagement around rebuilding Lahaina, Maui, including surveys, forums, sharing design concepts with visual and data models for economic, environmental analysis.

Ethan Chee is the captain of the UH Mānoa student team and members include Timothy Huo, Michelle Leano, Eda Cadiena and Marissa Halim.

In the low/no code category, team T777+ took first place and a $4,000 prize for their response to the affordable healthcare challenge. The team is from a mix of high schools also took second place in the high school category.

Joshua Li is the team captain and members include Brix Kozuki, Jacob Osada, Max Chin and Leo Zhang.

The 2023 HACC was sponsored by the State of Hawai‘i Office of Enterprise Technology Services (ETS) in partnership with the University of Hawai‘i.

State Chief Information Officer Doug Murdock said the team’s submissions were presented in-person for the first time since the 2020 restriction and judged by a group of technology professionals.

“We were very pleased with the quality and creativity of the submissions this year and having the presentations live, in-person added to the excitement,” Murdock said. “These teams took the challenges to heart and did their best to provide solutions.”

By the Numbers

• 187 participants
• 64 high school students
• 39 teams created
• 26 projects submitted
• 22 code-based and four no/low code projects
• 21 finalists

HACC 2023 – included 5 challenges:

• University of Hawai‘i – ITS Ask Us Challenge
• Tyler Hawai‘i – Affordable Healthcare
• Hawaii Pacific University CMDR (Center for Marine Debris Research) – Large Marine Debris Reporting, Dispatching
• Maui Institute of Art and Technology – Lahaina Digital Twin Project
• Zero Waste Oahu – Reusable Takeout Program App

Sponsors for the event include Transform Hawaiʻi Government, Hawaiian Airlines, Verizon, Google for Government, Tyler Technologies, Microsoft, eWorld Enterprise Solutions, Salesforce, Hawaiʻi Data Collaborative, AT&T and AWS.

Partners include IMAG Foundation, the Hawai‘i Department of Education Computer Science Team, UH Mānoa Information & Computer Sciences, Hawai‘i Pacific University, and the Hawai‘i Technology Develop Corporation.

Challenge(s)	Team Name	Captain	Affiliation	Advisor	HS Results	Open Results
Affordable Healthcare	MHS HAKK	Cassidy Ibanez	Mililani HS	Blaise Hanagami	1st
Affordable Healthcare	T777+	Joshua Li	Mixed HS	Tiger Li	2nd	1st No Code
ITS Ask Us	Hōʻemi	Brandon Dorde	Waipahu HS	Cindy Takara	3rd	3rd No Code
Marine Debris	Hiapo	Karen Sabog	Solo			2nd No Code
ITS Ask Us	DarkMode	Micah Tilton	UH Manoa			2nd Code
Lahaina Project	VENGEN	Ethan Chee	UH Manoa			1st Code
Marine Debris	Frosty Ice	Giorgio Tran	UH Manoa			3rd Code

For more information, visit  https://hacc.hawaii.gov/

See HACC photos at https://www.flickr.com/photos/144304884@N07/albums/72177720312873814