V for Vendetta Wins HT’s 2nd Annual Hackathon
Tuesday Mar, 15 2016
(AUSTIN, Texas) 3.15.16 — Two days of engagement, brainstorming, and computer programming resulted in the V for Vendetta team of Cydnei Mathis and Osahumen Aghasomwan creating the winning mobile application at the Huston-Tillotson University Second Annual <div> hackathon.
Mathis, a 10th grader at Eastside Memorial High School and Aghasomwan a first year HT student, created a mobile application as a tool for locating affordable healthcare for minorities in distressed socioeconomic situations. The mobile application allows users to enter a price range for the health services that they can afford in order to identify the closest clinic within that range. The app was designed to improve minority accessibility to health care.
V for Vendetta was one of seven teams that converged upon Huston-Tillotson University’s Downs-Jones Library for two days to work with technology industry professionals from Dell Inc., Entelo, Dev Bootcamp, Google, Google Fiber, Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, and The Big Machine. The teams paired with mentors to build websites and develop mobile applications to solve problems in the business, education, health and fitness, and entertainment sectors by the end of the process.
Guided by Autumn Caviness, HT’s Interim Director, W.E.B. DuBois Honors Program, this is the only youth and diversity-focused hackathon in the United States that is 100 percent organized and operated by students of color. Its mission is to assist millennials of color in recognizing that they can be more than consumers of technology—they too can be creators, innovators, and disruptors of tomorrow’s technology. More than 150 participants engaged in applications to disrupt the business, education, health and fitness, and entertainment sectors.
Last year’s winner during the inaugural hackathon created an app named “Pipeline” that aimed to solve the School-to-Prison Pipeline that impacts predominantly African American and Latino youths, in this country. Next year’s event is scheduled March 11-12, 2017 on the HT campus.
In addition to HT President and Chief Executive Officer Colette Pierce Burnette sharing words of encouragement, other special guests included: Leslie Miley of Entelo, Whitney O’Banner of Dev Bootcamp, Amina Sawyer of Google Fiber, Kyle Ali of Google, Ariel Bruce of Google, Lynette Barksdale of Google, Lisa Martinez of Google Play, John Gray of Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, Melissa McLeanas of Six Flags, Garrett Osumah of Six Flags, and Mark and Tracy Thompson of The Big Machine
Read more at www.htu.edu, @IAmThePipeline, and Facebook.com/divhackathon, #IAmThePipeline, #pipeitup, and #divhack2016.
Huston-Tillotson University, located in the heart of East Austin, is home to diverse student population that is 70% African American, 19% Hispanic, 3.7% white and 4.5% international.
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Pictured above are: V for Vendetta winners Osahumen Aghasomwan (left) and Cydnei Mathis with HT President and Chief Executive Officer Colette Pierce Burnette and Hackahton judge Whitney O’Banner (right).
Read more:
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/annual-sxsw-hackathon-exposes-students-tech-possibilities-n537121
http://innov8tiv.com/hackathon-inspiring-diversity-within-tech-space-march-12-13-2016/
http://hbcu-levers.blogspot.com/2016/03/dll-storify-of-hackathon-saturday-31216.html
