Westlake High Student Earns Best Overall Award at the VCOE Hackathon by the Sea

Congratulations to Max L., 10th grade student from Westlake High School who was awarded “Best Overall” at the 2022 Ventura County Office of Education Hackathon by the Sea, where students were tasked with developing an app, website, or other tech tool to address an issue in their community. 

Carpooler - Best Overall (Max L. - WHS): Carpooler is an innovative iOS and Android app that solves the problem of finding people to carpool with amidst flexible work schedules. Carpools can be scheduled and updated on the fly to keep up with the unpredictability of the new type of hybrid in-office/at-home work created by COVID-19 which makes it difficult to coordinate ride-sharing.  

The VCOE Technology Services and Career Education Departments recently partnered with Hacker Fund to host the Hackathon by the Sea event for the 5th year, but for the first time as a hybrid event. More than 10 teams from 25 different high schools throughout the county came together for in-person meetings on March 11 and 19, and then met virtually during the week to "hack" with support from industry experts who served as mentors. 

On March 11 teams worked through their ideation with mentors at the Ventura County Office of Education, then continued hacking and meeting with mentors in virtual office hours during the week. Mentors also held virtual workshops, introducing the teams to Web Game Development, Cyber Security, Design and Prototyping, and Website Design. Teams and mentors came back together again on March 19 to put the final touches on their projects and their presentations. The final activity was to present their projects to a panel of 5 judges: 

• Dr. Cesar Morales, Ventura County Superintendent of Schools

• Vance Brahosky, Deputy Technical Director, Naval Surface Warfare Center

• Tim Hicks, Senior Manager, IT Engineering and Planning, Grid Modernization, Southern California Edison

• Yeyen Ong, UX researcher

• Theo Kee, Digital Health/Therapeutics

Students loved being back in person for the Hackathon and felt the most valuable portion of the event was the time they were able to spend with mentors. 

Additional teams of CVUSD students also participated in and received recognition in this year’s Hackathon competition:

Congratulations to all participants!