When Cristina Dolan, MIT Media Lab Alumna and co-founder of OneMain, organized the first Dream It. Code It. Win It. competition in 2014, she ended up winning the Traders Magazine Charitable Contribution Award and an MIT Volunteer Honor Roll nod. Four of the 2014 teams of finalists went on to launch companies from their submissions.
The student coding competition is judged based on both the quality of the problem being tackled by the competitors and on the solution itself, with the aim to “promote creativity, diversity and literacy in the field of computer science.” The judging panel brings together experts from three tech-heavy sectors: finance, media and technology.
Winners of the 2015 competition were announced and celebrated at an “Unleashing Opportunities with Technology” event April 30, where speakers discussed how computer science education can create these new opportunities across industries. Winners worked on solutions in virtual reality, computer simulation and biological-related applications, among many others. Interestingly, as was the case in 2014, the majority of the applicant pool were female.
The winners and their solutions:
$10,000 TradingScreen Technology Entrepreneurship Award
Epicure: Claire Lambrecht and Rachel Wang – Cornell University
$10,000 Award for Women in Technology sponsored by Estee Lauder
Codapillar: Julie Gauthier and Olga Bogomolova – Pace University
$5,000 “Dream it. Code it. Win it.” Award for Innovation
Safe Night Out: David Cahn and Jack Cahn – UPenn
$5,000 “Dream it. Code it. Win it.” Award for Creativity
Unify: Dominick Tullo, Nicholas Hakim and William Jerome – Quinnipiac University
$5,000 “Dream it. Code it. Win it.” Award for Ingenuity
String to String: David Katz, Caleb Zulawski and Harrison Zhao – The Cooper Union
$5,000 “Dream it. Code it. Win it.” Award for Imagination
PARA/SYM: Atley Loughridge and Sebastian Herscher – NYU Media Research Lab
Future Pioneers Award sponsored by TradingScreen
Spirometer: Maya Varma – Presentation High School
MRI for Kids: Cal Stephens – Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School
Yahoo! Career Tech Day Prize
Discodux: Amelia Carpenter – Lower Merion High School
Mendel: Jessica Lai – Brearley School
My Move Critic: Johnathan Stemple, Robert Klaynberg, Eric Martin, Jonathan Kogan, Sam Gertler, Samuel Geller – Columbia Prep
More Magazine Career Tech Day Prize
Listen to Learn: Charlie Clark, Jackie Beshoory, Sabrina Carotenuto, Haley Horn – Convent of the Sacred Heart
The Green Team: Alexandra Bolanos, Sabrina Carrozzi, Alexa DiTursi, Molly Carroll, Alex Bolanos, Emily Casper, Jenny Blessing – Convent of the Sacred Heart
Amazon’s Shopbop Career Tech Day Prize
MyCloset: Alexandra Massello – Convent of the Sacred Heart
Safe Alert: Janelle Maxwell, Kylinn Askew, Isabella Libassi, Concetta Brusco, Emma Novick – Convent of the Sacred Heart
Kaplan Test Prep Course Prize
Just Smile: Porfirio Mohabir, Esi Mcallen, Mona Naser, Bassy Sissoko, Shahan Rahman, Krista Mayes – Academy for Software Engineering
TYWLSA: Maria Diaz, Jennifer Caceres, Michelle Morales, Gabriela Cuautle, Margot Richaud, Daniela Leguisamo, Geraldine Agredo – The Young Women’s School of Astoria
30 Weeks Career Tech Day Prize
QAMBA: Mark Norwich, Cooper Weaver, Eric Morgenstern, Andreas Wang – Stuyvesant High School
Dynamic Yield Career Tech Day Prize
Snappr: Avery Lamp, Ryan Sullivan, Shannon Peng, Sebastian Cain, Josh Liu – Millburn High School
Microsoft Surface Pro Prize
LifeCycle: Declan Sidoti, Alston Chau, Pomeroy Mohabir, James Li, Mohammed Hussain – Academy for Software Engineering
Realest: Yasmeen Roumie, Sammi Wu Leung – Stuyvesant High School
Safety in Numbers: Roy Xu, Angela Lin, Leon Chou – Stuyvesant High School
Wells Fargo Career Tech Day Prize
Periodic Clock: Brandon Lax, Gabriel Dubinsky, Brian Kishinevsky – Sanford H. Calhoun High School
Samsung Career Tech Day Prize
High-rise Hackers: Chloe Kaubisch, Nelli Spektor, Rick Melucci, Loren Maggiore – Stuyvesant High School
Fun to Bike: Justin Strauss, Angela Lin – Stuyvesant High School
Ferries: David Bang, Dionis Wang, Anish Malhotra, Eric Kilbusz – Stuyvesant High School
Finalists
Education Trainer: Wezley Sherman – Montevallo High School
BrowseWhiz: Carlos Sanchez – Miami Beach Senior High School
My Fitness Journey: Marilu Duque – Deltona High School
Brantley’s Top Coders: Lauren Czech, Hannah Arnold, Megan Elwood, Wesley Fletcher, Austin Guerrina, Emily Henry, Hannah Sheridan – Lake Brantley High School
Kachina Shaw is managing editor for IT Business Edge and has been writing and editing about IT and the business for 15 years. She writes about IT careers, management, technology trends and managing risk. Follow Kachina on Twitter @Kachina and on Google+