Ya Snooze, Ya Lose | What You Missed at HackStart – High School Hackathon

HackStart, a hackathon for high school students, went down earlier this month and we’ve got the scoop. Over the course of 24 hours, teams faced new challenges, met new people, built some extraordinary products, and took much needed naps in between all of the fun (as you see above). Teams of four young tech talented folks banned together to develop apps and pitch them to judges for a unique opportunity to take home cash prizes. Special shoutout to Bitpay who opened up their office to host the event. It’s great to see a fast-growing local company spending time and energy on community building!

We saw web apps, mobile apps, fun games, and met some really talented up-and-comers (stay tuned for profiles on them soon). Did you miss it? Check out this video.

And the winners are:
1st Place: EatOwl
2nd Place: Bass Drop
Creativity: CheapSleep
Social Impact: IntelliVote 

About the Organizers:
Aditya Sood is a first year Foundation Fellow and Stamps Scholar at the University of Georgia. He has worked since 2013 on his organization “Working Together for Change” aimed at ending homelessness and currently manages the Athens chapter of the organization. Aditya the recipient of the 2015 National Youth Immigration Award from the American Immigration Council in recognition for his organization’s mission to educate, engage and motivate others to help those living in poverty. Aditya also sits on the United Way’s Regional Commission on Homelessness. He’s also been the recipient of numerous other awards such as Georgia’s 20 under 20, YSA’s Summer of Service, and the Presidential Volunteer Award.

Anthony Liu: Tech enthusiast and Computer Science evangelist Anthony is a rising senior. Since 2013, he has worked as a part time technician at Auber Instruments, dedicating his time to designing prototypes and testing equipment. He is the state and national winner of numerous programming competitions hosted by FBLA and the Georgia Educational Technology Consortium Inc, and is one of the winners of Georgia Tech’s social entrepreneurship competition Ideas2Serve. Recently, he has been turning his efforts towards the hacking enviornment. He is currently working on promoting hackathons among the local high school community with his experience from past events such as Emory Entrepreneurship & Venture Management’s HackATL.

Nitish Sood: A rising junior and a Taido black-belt, Nitish co-founded “Working Together for Change” in his sophomore year, and currently serves as the executive director of all branches and activities of the nonprofit. He is the 2014 state debate champion and has received national acclaim in numerous business competitions for developing low-cost solutions to rehabilitate post-stroke patients. Nitish has been recognized numerous times for his work by YSA’s Everyday Young Hero’s, the Presidential Service Award 2015, and Boys to Men Phenomenal Man award. He also sits on the United Way’s Regional Commission on Homelessness, and serves as a GivingPoint Institute Leader.