Two interns from Detroit Venture Partners were awarded the $5,000 grand prize at #hackDPL, Automation Alley’s 24-hour hackathon to build an app for Detroit Public Library. Automation Alley, Michigan’s largest technology business association, held the event July 11-12 at its Detroit office, located at Grand Circus.
The first place winners are David Kircos of Grosse Pointe and Hunter Rosenblume of Syosset, New York. Kircos is a computer science major at Michigan State University and Hunter is a computer science major at Georgia Institute of Technology. The mobile application they developed will provide library users with alerts and notifications about Detroit Public Library events, programs, closings and other important dates. It will also allow users to search the library’s catalog and order e-books.
The apps were judged by Will McDowell, business analyst with Detroit Labs, maker of mobile apps for iPhone, Android, Windows and the Web; Victor Ibegbu, acting assistant director for information systems for the Detroit Public Library; Beth Niblock, CIO for the City of Detroit; and Mark Ostach, CEO of Digerati Inc.
“#hackDPL was a tremendous success thanks to the hard work of Automation Alley and Grand Circus and all of the contestants who ‘grinded it out’ for 24 hours to create a mobile application to benefit the citizens of Detroit,” said Atiim Funchess, Detroit Public Library’s assistant director for marketing. “We were extremely impressed with the diversity and level of talent that competed and truly grateful for the end results.”
Second place honors and $300 in gift cards from Gift Detroit went to a team from Detroit Labs: Nick Virag of Dearborn Heights, Tobi Adebisi of Flint and Andrew Giang of Canton. Virag is a computer science major at Lawrence Technological University. Adebisi is a computer science major at University of Michigan-Flint. Giang is a 2014 graduate of Wayne State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science. Virag and Adebisi are Detroit Labs summer interns, and Giang is a former Detroit Labs intern who was recently hired to be an app developer. (In order to avoid a conflict of interest, McDowell recused himself from evaluating the app submitted by Detroit Labs staff.)
Third place honors and Made In Detroit gear, courtesy of FAMS Printing, went to Evol Johnson, a Web and mobile app developer who has his own consulting company called NgeosOne LLC.
Source: Automation Alley
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