POINT LOOKOUT, MO. — A group of 18 students from College of the Ozarks attended TigerHacks this semester, a 36-hour hackathon held at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. The students had the opportunity to create various projects and compete against area colleges.
The following students placed second in the developer category with their project Trashmosphere: Tanner Maasen, Mitchell Dyck, Caleb Ross, Elias Householder, Mucyo Bangerezako, and Isaiah Parker.
Cheri Kembell, assistant professor of computer science, provided insight into the nature and importance of hackathons for computer science students.
“A hackathon is an event that is designed for computer science students to use technology and programming code to solve a problem or accomplish an objective,” Kembell said. “Typically, it will take place during a 24 to 48-hour timeframe. The students work day and night to accomplish their goals and present their completed projects to a panel of judges that consists of professors and industry partners.
“Most employers want to hire students that have participated in at least one hackathon during their college experience,” Kembell said. “It helps build confidence, perseverance, and teamwork with all students who participate.”
The inspiration behind the project Trashmosphere was to address the issue of space debris in low orbit. The students wanted to bring awareness to this issue. Completing this project taught the students unity, 3D modeling, game design, logic, and teamwork.
“My highlight of the weekend was just being able to take part in the amazing chemistry of my team,” said Mitchell Dyck, sophomore computer information science major. “We celebrated when we had a breakthrough and struggled through to overcome many bugs and errors.”
“This event taught me the value of a diversely skilled team and how we can work together and have a blast doing it,” said Tanner Maasen, senior computer science and business double major.
“This is the most beneficial extracurricular event that the ACM club and the Computer Science Department sponsors each year,” Kembell said. “I’d encourage all computer information science and computer science majors and minors to participate at least once.”
Participating colleges are as follows:
- Missouri University of Science and Technology
- University of Missouri - Columbia
- Georgia Tech
- The University of Missouri-Kansas City
- The University of Houston
- The University of Texas at Arlington
- The University of Georgia
- Indiana Institute of Information Technology
The students who participated in the event included:
- Aaron Barrett, freshman computer science major from Andover, Kansas
- Caleb Ross, senior computer science major from Everton, Missouri
- Caleb Stucky, senior computer science major from Brazil
- Elias Householder, senior engineering major from Milo, Missouri
- Ethan Murphy, junior computer information science major from Kirksville, Missouri
- Isaiah Parker, freshman computer science major from Rolla, Missouri
- Jacob Jurgensmeyer, junior computer information science major from Montrose, Missouri
- Joshua Ross, sophomore computer science major from Everton, Missouri
- Keaton Terry, freshman computer information science major from Clever, Missouri
- Micheal Maust, senior engineering major from Belton, Missouri
- Mitchell Dyck, sophomore computer information science major from Waukesha, Wisconsin
- Mucyo Bangerezako, senior engineering major from Columbia, Missouri
- Rickey Spence, junior computer science major from McNeal, Arizona
- Stephen Anderson, sophomore computer information science major from Charleston, Missouri
- Tanner Maasen, senior computer information science and business administration double major from Freeburg, Missouri
- Trey Wilkins, freshman computer science major from Blue Eye, Missouri
- Ulpiana Bokshi, junior computer science major from St. Louis, Missouri
- Warren Burton, freshman computer science major from Saint James, Missouri