24-Hour Hackathon Brings Together Students from Across the Seattle Area

Students from Seattle University’s computer science program, led by Bryan Kim, ’26, recently held HackSU 2025, a 24-hour invitational hackathon that brought together students from various colleges across the Seattle area. The event, sponsored and hosted by SU’s chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), fostered interdisciplinary collaboration and attracted participants from a wide range of disciplines, including computer science, mechanical engineering and graphic design. Kim, who serves as president of ACM, noted that he and the group’s officers had been hard at work planning the event for over six months.

The event had 71 participants and 16 group project submissions from five schools, including North Seattle College and the University of Washington’s Seattle, Bothell, Tacoma campuses. It was supported by six faculty judges and one representative from Meta, along with two mentors from Pariveda, who provided valuable guidance throughout the event.

Kim, who is pursuing his BS in Computer Science, said his motivation for organizing the event was to develop and foster lifelong connections.

“ACM had always held a hackathon for our students, but we never had an opportunity to include people outside of SU,” he said. “I believed it was important to not only put SU’s name on the map but also to branch out and build connections with companies and schools.”

Kim said the hackathon themes encouraged building software in the context of the client. One focused on STEM-related clients such as improving infrastructure or programming simulators, and another focused on human connection like streamlining social media or accessibility improvements.

A diverse range of projects were showcased, including a multidisciplinary drone flying simulator, a Computer Vision (CV)-powered recycling guide, an anonymous engagement tool for professors to use with their lesson plans and even prototypes for an AI-powered mental health platform and a video game.

Among the winning project groups were RecycleMe, SlideSU, Drone Flying Sim and Smart Learn.

“This event helped me personally build relationships that may potentially be helpful in my career,” Kim said. “It also reinforced the realization that tech is multidisciplinary. We need business skills to market our products, humanitarian skills to ethically build software and artistic skills to design our software and present it.”

HackSU not only raised the profile of SU’s Computer Science program but also provided participants with an opportunity to develop networking, teamwork and problem-solving skills, while engaging with peers, faculty and industry professionals.

Kim said the success of the event was thanks to a broad network of support, including Department of Computer Science staff member Dale Nash and Department Chair Dr. Burkhard Englert. Kim was also thankful to faculty member Beatriz Diaz Acosta for serving as a judge and helping recruit additional judges.

Students Max Tran, ’26, Jomikael Ruiz, ’25, Saloni Sanger, ’25, and Rupeshwar Rao, ‘26 were key in managing day-of logistics while Tran and Adela Eccli, ’25, presidents of the Artificial and Intelligent Machine Learning (A.n.I.Ma.L.) Club and Girls Who Code (GWC) respectively, helped with collaboration through their clubs. Alumni Isabel Ovalles, ’23, and Luan Ta, 23, were also appreciated for contributing prizes.

“I’m deeply thankful to everyone who made this event happen,” Kim said. “It wouldn’t have been the same without them.”