Stevens held Quack Hacks 2025, its first-ever student-run hackathon, on the weekend of March 29 and 30. Stevens students of all majors competed in themed and open-ended programming and electronics challenges over 29 hours. Nearly 400 participants—double the anticipated turnout—had the opportunity to take part in company networking, workshops, speaker events, food and merch giveaways, and more. To learn more, The Stute had the opportunity to speak with Anna Hauk, one of the lead organizers of the event.
Hackathons are typically 24-hour code competitions where teams build prototype solutions to specific challenges under time pressure. The concept for Quack Hacks was conceived in August 2024, when lead organizers Olof Persson, Humna Sultan, and a dedicated student team asked: “Why not host our own?” in response to repeated requests from students for Stevens to host a hackathon. The eight-month planning process was inspired by hackathons popular with Stevens students, including New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Jersey Capture the Flag event.
The competition officially kicked off at 11 a.m. on Saturday with a breakfast bar and keynote speeches from representatives of major sponsors ADP and Chubb. Additional sponsors included Amazon Web Services (AWS), Databricks, and Dyania Health, all of whom provided generous support through funding, prizes, and hands-on workshops.
In total, 63 student teams registered, and 40 projects were submitted. Participants also enjoyed a variety of side activities, such as late-night yoga, Just Dance sessions, and constant food and merch giveaways. Hauk described the atmosphere of the opening ceremony as full of energy and anticipation, stating, “Students were excited to participate in the first ever hackathon and were anxious to get hacking!”
AWS, Chubb, and ADP each held a major workshop for the benefit of participants on the first day of the competition. “AWS Cloud, GenAI and Amazon PartyRock fun workshop,” summarized those key services of Amazon’s cloud computing and interface services, including a demonstration of how to integrate them into projects large and small. “Using AI Agents to Tackle Community Risk,” presented by the consortium of insurance companies known as Chubb, showcased the group’s use of autonomous and decision-making artificial intelligence agents to address problems related to risk in the insurance business. “Application of Deep Learning Models,” presented by the payroll service company ADP, showed how data processing networks can be applied to address human resource and information technology needs.
Numerous organizations, students, faculty, and staff worked together to make the hackathon a success. Organizations including the Computer Science Department, Stevens Women in Computer Science (SWiCS), Stevens Computer Science Club (SCSC), Stevens Cyber Defense Team (SCDT), Blueprint, Stevens Linux User Group (SLUG), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and Software Engineering Club (SEC) collaborated with support from university figures such as Dave Naumann, Megan Whittemore, and Rekha Manohar, as well as volunteer judges Philippe Meunier, William Eiers, and alumni Rocco Polimeni.
The closing ceremony featured Stevens professors and alumni as well as company representatives and guest speakers. Even Attila dropped by to take photos with participants and organizers. The winners of the inaugural hackathon prompts were as follows:
- Best Overall: Caremigo – A centralized health online health portal that demystifies doctoral jargon and makes medical documents understandable.
- ADP Prompt Winner: CareerIQ – An AI assistant that turns payroll and market data into actionable career advice.
- Chubb Prompt Winners: Caremigo and Community Risk Monitoring – Both addressing safety and health concerns using innovative tech solutions.
- Ari Birnbaum Community Impact Award: Frigid – A web app visualizing ICE detention data in New Jersey and offering legal resources.
- Best Design: Future Nest – A tool for evaluating sustainable housing based on climate risk.
- Most Innovative: Education Redefined Through Immersive AR – A storytelling and AR-based learning platform.
- Attila’s Favorite: The Duck Experience – Stevens student-made web interface that attempts to capture the classic duck experience by giving people an opportunity to share their ducks with the world.
“We knew we had a hit on our hands when attendees started asking us how they can be part of planning next year’s event,” said Hauk. She cited growing support from the University community, saying that Quack Hacks will grow in scope in the future. “We are very proud of our first-ever Stevens Quack Hacks Student Hackathon and we look forward to all the amazing hacks to come!”
