HenHacks 2023

April 29th-30th

2023 Theme: Giving Back to Delaware!

To kick off with our very first event, we asked our 300 participants to think about giving back to Delaware communities. Our hackers were challenged to take a look at the problems around them, no matter how small or large, and rapidly develop a project in 24 hours that tackles this problem in a creative way. 


All five of our categories - four of them being company-sponsored - touched on this theme through varying aspects. From the categories of educational technology, to period poverty, to Delaware flooding, we received 54 total project submissions that contributed to the greater good of the community.  

HenHacks 2023 Winners 

Siddharth Lokula, Carter McCabe, and Tyran Rice Jr. standing with professor Katie Wassil of UD Computer & Information Sciences

Giving Back to Delaware: U-Go 

Team OWL took home the 1st place prize - $1600 worth of gift cards - for the hackathon's main category, Giving Back to Delaware! This category is designed for submissions from teams who are composed of mostly freshmen or beginners in their technology careers, so we are all the more proud of them! Congratulations Team OWL!

View project U-Go:

Devpost 🔗

Github repository 🔗

Runner up: Chirp

Congratulations to team Chirp for winning 2nd place in the Giving Back to Delaware category! Each team member got to take home their own pair of Airpod Pros

View project Chirp:

Devpost 🔗

Github🔗

Ethan Orevillo, Daniel DeFlores, and Gage Schuster standing with UDCIS professor Katie Wassil 

Best Educational Technology Hack: Ada AI 

Congratulations to the winners of our hackathon's second custom category designed by students and faculty! These talented and devoted team members took home the 1st place prize - $1600 worth of giftcards! This category challenged hackers to infuse their computer science knowledge and programming skills to create a project to facilitate education for students. Way to go, Ada AI!

View project Ada AI:

Devpost 🔗

Github 🔗

Team members Jan Ahmed, Aaron Oster, Daniel Xu standing with judges Minji Kong, Megan Englert, and Dr. Austin Bart from the Computer & Information Sciences Department

Not pictured: Johnathan Ma

Shreya Pamulapati, 

Abdulrahman Abdulhamid, Talha Mahmood, and Alexandra Croce standing with judges Dr. Austin Bart, Minji Kong, and Megan Englert from the Computer & Information Sciences Department


Runner Up: Breakout 

Congratulations to this team for winning 2nd place for their creative application, Breakout! Each team member got to take home their own pair of AirPod Pros



View project Breakout: 

Devpost 🔗

Github 🔗

Sponsored By 

Team members Kambria Rogalski, Sakhee Desai, Heni Patel, and Aman Singh standing with judges from M&T Bank

Best Community Hack: HakSafety

Congratulations to the 1st place winners of the M&T Bank-sponsored hack, Best Community Hack! The group of 4 were each given their own Nintendo Switch OLED! From M&T Bank on their category:

"We are looking for a project that supports the local community. Projects should be designed with a seamless user experience and provide some benefit to connect individuals around your campus or local community." 


We are so proud of the team for impressing software industry professionals and standing out to the judges. Well done, HakSafety!

View project HakSafety:

Devpost 🔗

Github 🔗

Best Delaware Flood Hacks: FloodWatch & DE Flood Map

Congratulations to both independent hacker Zoe Valladares for FloodMap and team FloodWatch for their winning submissions to the Pennoni category! The winners were given Phillies Box seat tickets! We were pleased to be sponsored by an engineering consulting firm whose purpose is to help provide solutions for diverse problems in the community. From Pennoni on their category: 


"DE is a low-lying state at risk for flooding, especially with climate change increasing flood risk.  A combination of crowdsourcing data by scraping social media sites and mapping it out for real-time decision making is an interesting technical challenge and potentially very useful for DE residents and agencies."


We are proud of these teams for taking on this niche technical challenge and impressing the judges. Amazing work, FloodWatch and FloodMap!


View project FloodWatch:

Devpost 🔗

Github🔗

View project FloodMap:

Devpost 🔗

Github🔗



Sponsored By

Featured standing with Penoni judges: Independent hacker Zoe Valladares (FloodMap) and team FloodWatch: Trevor Dolbow, Andrew Roberts, Matthew Gwin, and Yasmeen Elzamek. 

Sponsored By

Jenn McNiff, Jacob Haussman, and Arogya Dahal

Julia O'Neill with UDCIS professor Dr. Debrah Yarrington

Accessible Info for the Underserved: MoneyMap DE 

Congratulations to team MoneyMap DE for winning 1st place in Labware's category, with a prize of $800 in Amazon and Starbucks gift cards

View project MoneyMap DE:

Devpost 🔗

Github🔗


Runner Up: Period Poverty 

Congratulations to solo hacker Julia O'Neill for her persistence and hard work, granting her 2nd place with a prize of $400 in Amazon and Starbucks gift cards


View project Period Poverty:

Devpost 🔗

Github🔗



Thank you to all of our 2023 sponsors: 

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