The University of Tennessee at Martin recently sent nine students to the Missouri University of Science and Technology to participate in “PickHacks,” a hackathon event for computer science students across the country. Six UT Martin students won prizes for their work.

Garrett Hay, a junior from Union City, worked with students from Missouri and Indiana to create SmarterNotHarder.tech, a website that uses machine learning to create custom workout and nutrition plans for users. Hay and his team won the “Best Use of Google Cloud Platform” prize.

Chris Humphreys, a senior from Kuna, Idaho; Brayden Faulkner, a senior from Henderson; Lucian Freeze, a senior from Hornbeak; and Adam Chisolm, a senior from Paris, collaborated to create Infect.tech, a web-based zombie survival game that encourages users to get outside and interact with other players. Their mobile application won awards in the “Most Fun Hack” and “Best Hack/Website Submitted on a .tech Domain” categories.

Hunter Haislip, a junior from Gates, created ScoutingConnect, a website designed to help high school athletes in lesser-known sports connect with college coaches across the country and receive scholarship information at applicable universities. Haislip’s submission won the “Best Human Centered Design (UI/UX)” award.

Other competitors from UT Martin include Matthew Austin, a senior from Jackson; Meredith Brown, a senior from Trezevant; and Mel Howard, a sophomore from Columbia, South Carolina, who created GeoBlitz, a GPS-enabled web application based on the game of Battleship.

A hackathon is a computer science programming event where teams and individuals spend up to 36 hours creating brand-new websites, programs, apps and other technology from scratch. PickHacks is the first such event to be held at Missouri S&amp;T and was officially sponsored by Major League Hacking. UT Martin will host its first hackathon event March 30.

For more information, contact Dr. Joshua Guerin, associate professor of computer science and chair, UT Martin Department of Computer Science, at 731-881-7246 or <a href="mailto:jguerin@utm.edu">jguerin@utm.edu</a>.
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