More than 250 students gathered for the first-ever 24-hour AI hackathon, which ran from 5pm Thursday to 4pm Friday. The event was held in partnership with technology company Oracle, along with the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and College of Engineering.
The event began with opening remarks and the presentation of this year’s problem statement, asking how artificial intelligence can be used to “improve the university experience” and improve educational well-being. Participants were tasked with creating a presentation that included a working demo of the AI agent, as well as marketing and budgeting the model.
Competing students were assigned to teams of three or four, consisting of both business and engineering students. The competition began at the Leinweber Computer Science and Information building and ended on Friday at the Tauber Colloquium, where the hackathon winners were announced.
Holly Taylor, director of community engagement for Michigan Engineering Connect, said in an interview with the Michigan Daily that the hackathon began after she met Phil Brabbs, managing director and adjunct instructor at the business school, and decided to combine their backgrounds.
“The vision behind all this was from when I met Phil at a private function and we talked about what we did. He was from Los Angeles and I was from an engineering background,” Taylor said. “So we started talking about what we could do together to get students involved.”
In an interview with The Daily, Brabus said the hackathon helped bring together students from different academic backgrounds.
“I could be wrong, but I think this is really the first time that the College of Engineering and Ross have partnered so closely on a joint program of this scale,” Brabbs said. “Next year we hope to expand further and actually open across campus.”
The event concluded on Friday, with the top five finalists given seven minutes to present their projects to other teams, the audience, and a panel of judges. The judges then announced the top two. Team 8 won the first place prize of $3,000 and Team 44 won the second place prize of $1,000.
Team 8 created DopaMine, an AI that helps students stay on top of their to-do lists. By accessing a student’s Google Calendar, Screen Time, and Canvas, the goal is to detect the start of doomscrolling. The AI agent then sends a notification via iMessage to remind the user that the assignment is due or to block distracting apps until the assignment is completed.
Tony Yao, an engineering business freshman and event participant, said in an interview with the Daily that neither he nor his team members had ever participated in a hackathon before, and that they cherished the experience.
“We have never participated in a hackathon before,” Yao said. “I barely slept last night, but today it all paid off. I’m very, very grateful for this opportunity. It was definitely a lot of fun.”
Daily News contributor Samantha Schaefer can be reached at: samipage@umich.edu.
