What happens when you put a bunch of WashU (and SLU!) students in a room for 36 hours with no sleep, no code, and a whole lot of coffee? Magic. This past weekend, February 21-23, the Skandalaris Center hosted its first-ever No-Code Hackathon, proving that you don’t need to be a coding wizard to build something awesome.
This wasn’t your typical hackathon. No squinting at screens filled with code. No existential crises over missing semicolons. (HA!) Just brilliant minds tackling real-world problems using no-code platforms. Associate Director Adam Wilson welcomed the teams to the Center on Friday evening with a thought exercise to spark creativity and a reminder to students that solutions are everywhere and to look at their problems from every angle. The energy was palpable as students broke off into teams to begin brainstorming.
Over the course of the weekend, the teams addressed problems ranging from helping women find mentors to fighting food insecurity to outsmarting AI deep-fakes. After 36 hours of hard work, little sleep, and lots of snacks, they presented impressive and fully functional prototypes.
One of the best things about the Skandalaris Center is its ability to bring together students from all corners of campus. This hackathon was no different. Five WashU schools and students ranging from first-year undergrads to graduate students were represented among the winners, proving that great ideas don’t just come from one discipline—they come from passionate people who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty in pursuit of innovation, working together towards a common goal.
Drumroll Please… The Winning Teams!
A standing ovation (or at least a hearty slow clap) for the teams:
1st Place – SheLeads
SheLeads took home a First Place prize of $750!
Wenting Yu (Arts & Sciences), Sergiu Clebidachi (Olin MBA), Hamasa Ebadi (School of Medicine), Elva Lin (School of Medicine)
2nd Place – Hungry Racoon
Hungry Racoon took home a $500 Second Place prize!
Daedalus Chen (Arts & Sciences), Ran Duan (McKelvey School of Engineering)
3rd Place – Detectify
Detectify took home Third Place and $250!
Skye Wang (Beyond Boundaries), Akshat Shah (SLU), Dhruvkumar Parmar (SLU)
Congratulations to our winners, and thank you to all the teams for participating! It was so exciting to see all the creative solutions that came out of this collaborative weekend. Huge appreciation goes out to Samuel Cabral, our Entrepreneur-in-Residence and lead judge, who generously lent his expertise and endured frenzied pitches and sleep-deprived enthusiasm. And to all our volunteers, thank you!
The Skandalaris Center is here to keep the momentum going with more opportunities to innovate, build, and disrupt. Whether it’s another hackathon, The Skandalaris Venture Competition, summer Launchpad, or some other wild entrepreneurial adventure, we can’t wait to see what you create next!