15 teams of undergraduate students competed in the 2023 Hesburgh Libraries Hackathon at the University of Notre Dame, which took place from March 31 to April 2.

Teams were charged with developing projects that leverage technology to discover, visualize, or create solutions to everyday problems related to this year’s theme, Hacking for Harmony. The final presentations, raffle, and award ceremony were held in the Hesburgh Library Carey Auditorium, with teams working in the Hesburgh Library throughout the weekend-long event.

During the competition, Hackathon coaches were available via Zoom to support the teams if they had questions about strategy, coding, methodology, usability, design, or presentation preparation.

On the final day of the event, students presented their projects to a panel of judges and their peers. The Hackathon judges evaluated final project submissions on five key areas: innovation, impact, usability, technical merit, and presentation. Prizes were awarded to teams who excelled in the criteria on the judging rubric.

Congratulations to the 2023 Hesburgh Libraries Hackathon winners.

1st Place – $3,000 Award

TRiBE

Edson Augustin, College of Engineering, Computer Science
Bright Dikko, College of Engineering, Computer Science
Gerry Migwi, College of Engineering, Computer Science
Nathan Russom, College of Engineering, Computer Science

Students currently lack a safe and secure platform for connecting, interacting, sharing resources, and carrying out transactions with the campus community. TRiBE offers a solution by providing a centralized and trustworthy hub for students. The platform is a web application comprised of four main features. The Campus Marketplace includes a trust scoring system and offers secure and dependable transactions. Ride Sharing provides a convenient and secure option for students to share rides. The Finding Talent feature helps students connect with freelancers and entrepreneurs within the Notre Dame community. The Charity feature provides opportunities to volunteer and make donations within the Notre Dame community.

2nd Place – $2,000 Award

Bite Buds

Astrid Do, College of Arts and Letters, Visual Communication Design
Eva Gorzkiewicz, College of Engineering, Computer Science
Julia Kim, College of Business, Finance

College students are often under stress and many tend to neglect their eating habits. Certain foods like omega-3 fats and vegetables can help regulate your body’s response to stress. Bite Buds enables students to seamlessly track their nutrition and maintain healthy habits in a new, fun way. When a user snaps a picture and adds their meals, the app alerts them if they are on track or deficient in a certain nutrient. Through gamification, this app promotes a healthy and balanced diet, which is essential to reducing stress and improving your lifestyle.

3rd Place – $1,000 Award

OnCampus

Kristen Friday, College of Engineering, Computer Science
Carlo Preciado, College of Engineering, Computer Science
Gavin Uhran, College of Engineering, Computer Science

Due to overwhelming sources of information on campus, it can be difficult for students to find events and activities of interest. OnCampus is a tool that consolidates large quantities of campus data into one resource. It offers a tailored experience for individual students and has an easy-to-use interface. The app leverages machine learning and natural language processing to learn the interests of each user so it can provide recommendations. After creating your profile and selecting your interests, OnCampus displays a chronological list of activities for a day, week, and month. It also allows you to favorite certain events, follow individual hosts, or submit an event.

Honorable Mention – $500 Award

Learn the Lingo

Victoria Mendez, College of Engineering, Computer Science
Axel Nunez, College of Engineering, Computer Science
Cody Walsh, College of Engineering, Computer Science
Claire Yin, College of Arts and Letters, Political Science and Computer Science

Learn the Lingo is a platform that helps users learn country-specific lingo (or slang) through an interactive website. Users select a country and the site will populate a list of useful slang you might hear from a native speaker. Users can also use the site to search for a specific word. The platform provides the definition, audio pronunciation, and phonetic spelling of each word. It also includes a Word of the Day feature. This website allows for cross-cultural exchange and an opportunity to better connect with local people and cultures around the world.

Honorable Mention – $500 Award

Varisong

Steven Baranko, College of Engineering, Computer Science
Drew Lair, College of Engineering, Computer Engineering
Jeremy Stevens, College of Engineering, Computer Science

Varisong’s mission is to empower people to explore different cultures through music. Using machine learning, Varisong takes a list of the users' favorite songs and curates a playlist of music from other cultures and languages. The algorithm pulls information about the origin of each song and the culture. This service would be valuable for language professors, prospective abroad students, or anyone looking to expand their musical palette.

2023 Hackathon Judges

A special thank you to our judges.

Caterina Agostini, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship
Helen Hockx-Yu, Enterprise Architect, Office of Information Technologies
Shreya Kumar, Assistant Teaching Professor, College of Engineering
Steve Varela, Director of Teaching and Learning Technologies, Office of Information Technologies