hackGC 2023 Winning Team Brings Innovation to Food Waste

Published:
May 10, 2023

Dayana Garcia

hackGC 2023 in pictures

hackGC is stamped on colored silicone wristbands for team solidarity.

Colorful wristbands are used for team solidarity during the hackGC weekend. Teams were arranged by event organizers, so some team members were meeting each other for the first time. 

Man speaking at a podium with one arm raised and finger pointing toward audience.

Keynote speaker Jainen “JT” Thayer inspired ’23 participants with personal stories of innovation. Thayer is the chief investment officer for Grinnell College. 

A team meets with event mentor Barb Baker.

Team Climateers discusses their ideas with Barb Baker, one of four event mentors for hackGC. Each team met with each mentor for an equal amount of time. 

Wilson Center director with four students on first place team, and one of the judges.

The first-place team holding their trophies, with Jeff Blanchard, Wilson Center director (far left), and Chris Bair, event judge (far right).

Wilson Center director with five students on second place team, and one of the judges.

The second-place team holding their trophies, with Jeff Blanchard, Wilson Center director (far left), and Monica Chavez-Silva, event judge (far right).

Third-place team in front of the trophy table, listening to the announcement by Jeff Blanchard, Wilson Center director (far left), and Chris Bair, event judge (far right).

Third-place team BlueBear waits at the trophy table for the conclusion of the announcement by Jeff Blanchard, Wilson Center director.

Third-place team holding their trophies, with Jeff Blanchard, Wilson Center director, and an event judge.

Third-place team Kernel5 holding their trophies, with Jeff Blanchard, Wilson Center director (far left), and Leslie Bleichner, event judge (far right).

The three student event organizers wear hackGC t-shirts and hold up one of the trophies.

The three student event organizers — Agnes Saracouli ’25, Dayana Garcia ’26, and Nifemi Ogunmesa ’25 — wear hackGC t-shirts and hold up one of the trophies before judging begins. Many Wilson Center events such as hackGC are organized and run primarily by their student employees for the benefit of student participants. Thank you to our wonderful student staff for their hard work making hackGC a meaningful event! 

In April, four student teams formed to be well dispersed in ability. The teams worked to create technology solutions to the social justice issue for this year’s hackGC weekend competition: climate change. They were guided by four mentors: Sanjay Khanna ’85, Gina Donovan ’04, Barb Baker, and Amy Blanchard. After a morning full of wise words, they spent the rest of Saturday formatting their ideas and preparing for their pitches.

On Sunday, teams presented their ideas to our three judges: Leslie Bleichner ’07, Chris Bair ’96, and Monica Chavez-Silva. Each group was given 15 minutes to present their pitch and answer judge questions.

The winning team, Ctrl-Alt-Elite, consisted of four Grinnellians, some of whom had not met one another before the weekend began. Their social innovation, Budget Bite — the Broccoli App, would allow users to scan receipts in order to keep track of what is in their fridge. The app would notify users when food is expiring soon, provide recipes using the ingredients they have, and make suggestions for future purchase amounts to avoid overbuying and food waste. Team members Gabriela Roznawska ’26, Avaash Bhattarai ’26, Quynh Dao ’25, and Tim Yu ’26 won first place, each earning a $500 prize.

The weekend was full of brilliant ideas and wonderful teamwork. Yu reflects on the experience, saying, “When we presented I felt very confident, even though my group only spent the last hour preparing. Leaving the event I felt more confident in my public speaking skills.” His experience was shared by many who had never been put in such a time constraint for a new project, but they all took it in stride.

Team Climateers were awarded second place and $300 each for their Sustainify app pitch. Team members are Ananya Manchanda ’26, Muhammad Khalid ’26, Julian Kim ’26, Tessa Siminou ’26, and Aysha Simmonds ’23. The judges declared a tie for third place: Kernal5 team members Carter English ’24, Madel Sibal ’26, Raj Jhanwar ’25, Trung Le ’25, and Aruan Shaukenov ’25 pitched their Zero Foodprint app for personalized planning of dining hall meals, and BlueBear team members Natalia Ramirez Jimenez ’25, Mariela Lopez Gonzalez ’25, Yuxin Peng ’25, Devanshu Pandey ’26, and Zihao Yu ’24 pitched their Grinndar calendar enhancement app for reducing paper waste associated with campus event advertising. Third place earned team members $150 each.

hackGC is sponsored by the Wilson Center for Innovation and Leadership. The Wilson Center encourages not only the winning students but all Grinnell College students to use the Wilson Center Incubator to further support their ideas and innovations. We look forward to next year’s hackGC with a possible rebranding and further collaboration with the Stew Makerspace to bring student ideas to life.

Tagged as

We use cookies to enable essential services and functionality on our site, enhance your user experience, provide better service through personalized content, collect data on how visitors interact with our site, and enable advertising services.

To accept the use of cookies and continue on to the site, click "I Agree." For more information about our use of cookies and how to opt out, please refer to our website privacy policy.