Polytechnic student takes top IronHacker honor

IronHacks awards ceremony

The Research Center for Open Digital Innovation (RCODI) recognized 27 students from TECH 49900 (Open Data Hacking) at an IronHacks awards ceremony on Monday, December 4, 2017.

The IronHacks class is an eight-week software coding program offered each semester. Students use “open” data (data that is available to anyone, free of charge) to tackle challenges in the areas of health, housing, travel, energy and food. Students in the fall class were tasked to create an app to solve the assigned challenge “Find me a safe and affordable place to rent near New York University – Stern School of Business.”

The IronHackers were congratulated by West Lafayette Mayor John Dennis; Robert F. Cox, senior associate dean for globalization and professor of construction management; Brendan O’Connor, assistant chief of staff of the Management Performance Hub (MPH); and Sabine Brunswicker, associate professor of innovation, director of Purdue’s Research Center for Open Digital Innovation and the creator of IronHacks.

IronHacker Emily Ko, a sophomore in Purdue Polytechnic who is studying cybersecurity, won the award for Best Community Spirit for contributing the most to the hacker forum despite initially not knowing how to code. “This class doesn't require any coding experience,” explained Ko. “But once the hack was over, I knew three new coding languages — CSS, HTML and JavaScript. I would definitely recommend this class.”

The other awardees were:

  • Jordan Loeser, electrical and computer engineering, who won Best Winning Spirit for performing in the top 25 percent of each round
  • Justin Mamaril, College of Liberal Arts, who won Best Solution for contributing the most to the forum

Ko, Loeser and Mamaril received Amazon gift cards valued up to $500, internship possibilities with program sponsors that included RedHat, Socrata and MPH; and the chance to go to La Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogota for an internship, where Purdue IronHacks is also established.

For information on the next IronHacks class, visit ironhacks.com.

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