5th EmP Hackfest - SeaHack

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SeaHack was hosted in 2023 from September 9th to September 10th. It was our fifth hackathon and first in-person event. 
The theme was: Create a solution that solves a prevalent problem in the Washington community

There were 106 participants, making up 28 teams.
September 2023 Devpost

SeaHack has concluded
Thank you to all our participants and volunteers!

 We are very lucky to be able to host an in-person Hackathon this time. Special thanks to Microsoft Reactor, local and remote sponsors, mentors and judges, a special shout out to all 6 high school organizers! They spent the entire summer planning for the event, they successfully secured multiple sponsorships to provide award and prizes for the Hackathon. Some grocery retailers in the area also provide generous support by donating gift cards and food/snacks for the event. We really feel the community for this youth program.

This hackathon has received overwhelming registration and reached capacity cap 5 days before the event. All participants are high schoolers from various school districts across the metro Seattle area. We are very happy to see so many energetic young faces coming ready to solve a problem, learn how to code, work with friends, and come up with an unique idea and complete their project. 

Over 120 students and parents attended the Opening Ceremony. The organizers introduced themselves, reveal the them and explain schedule and rules of the Hackathon. We are very honored to have invited Dr. Lidong Zhou, head of Microsoft Asia , to give an inspiring speech to all the attendees. Our theme this year is to design a product or service that will help solve a problem and will benefit a community in Washington State. In Dr. Zhou’s speech – he told the kids this Hackathon will demonstrate how technology can be a driving force for quality change. Community involvement is not just a robust word, it’s the live blood of any thriving society. 

During the hackathon we have organized 3 workshops covering a popular topic – the Road to FTC World Championship, a very powerful marketing workshop on “How to Pitch Your Project for Success” workshop. 

We are fortunate to have invited 4 mentors and 8 judges to participate in our Hackathon. During the 2 day events mentors spend all day with participants coaching and helping these young students. Our judges listened to all the presentation and provided great feedback for each team. 

We want to thank EmP board and adult volunteers for all the great support. We look forward to seeing you again next year! 

Project Winners

Division 1
1st Place - Team R
Leo Chen, Fedele Wu

2nd Place - Team C
Senuka Liyanage, Fiona Brennan, Anna Melomed, Harry Allen

3rd Place - Team J
Ella Su, Jason Yao, Runchen Wu, Alvin Huang, Alexandra Deschenes

Division 2
1st Place - Team T
Angela Yang, Gavin Jones, Brian Vu, Siddhanth Prasanna, Vicky Ye

2nd Place - Team 2
Grace Zeng, Aarush Ghorpade, Raahina Sheik Syed Ali

3rd Place - Team S
​Jiayue Quan, Andy Yang, Nathan Regan

Sponsor Awards

Monster Mini Golf
Team H
Willem MaGee, Grigory Shatalin 

Wolfram Alpha
 Team M
Sarah Wen, Rachel Zhu, John O'Meara

Team 4
Harry Zhao, Alexander Lu

Team O
Corey Zhang, Eshan Feroz, Haiyi Li, Adithya Saby, Justin Lu

Team B
Deeptha Babu, Arushi Sinha , Rhea Biswas, Ananya Kishore, Fayha Yunus

Team N
Elizabeth Hu, Arthur Zhu, Leo Wang

Raffle Winners
@arthurzhuuu
@chainlynx.robotics
@calla_dang

Dr. Lidong Zhou, Corporate Vice President, Chief Scientist of Microsoft Asia Pacific R&D Group, Managing Director of Microsoft Research Asia