This was Marshall’s first-ever student Hackathon event, which is a day spent building, learning and making creative solutions to a real field-based challenge provided by Schwan’s Company, who was the event’s main sponsor. Specifically, students design and code their project, such as creating an app, website or hardware prototype.

“This is where we have the students come in, give them two problems, they can choose whichever one they like, and then they solve it,” Desta said. “It’s where students come in and build something … We just have the students use AI tools, coding tools or designing tools.”

Yishak and Desta had a group of about 30 area students attend the event, including Marshall High School, SMSU and South Dakota State University students.

“We want to get the students to show some things on their resume,” Yishak said regarding what her and Desta hope students take away from the event. “When you think about computer science … They (businesses) want to see a project, they want to see an experience.”

Photo by Samantha Davis: Area students work together at the Hackathon event on Saturday at Southwest Minnesota State University, creating a solution to a prompted challenge.

Participating students also received mentorship from SMSU computer science faculty throughout the day.

The two challenges students could choose from, provided by Schwan’s, was the Knowledge Transfer Agent or the IT Hardware and Software Budget Forecasting.

The Knowledge Transfer Agent challenge had students build an AI-powered platform that helps teach, using an array of technologies that organizes what the solution can offer regarding training materials like step-by-step instructions or quizzes.

The IT Hardware and Software Budget Forecasting challenge asked students to build a tool that assists IT teams to manage software costs such as laptops, servers, subscriptions and to help forecast totals for up to five years, while also tracking current-time spending.

“They choose what tools to use. They build that (the solutions) by the end of the day, and present it to us,” Desta said. “(We have) resource pages that is free for them to use … We tell them to use whatever they like, the design templates, AI, (or) some coding tools and videos if they need some help on how it should be done.”

Photo by Samantha Davis: Southwest Minnesota State University alum Bityana Yishak (right) and Tesfatsion Desta (left) hosted Marshall's first Hackathon on Saturday, which is a learning experience for computer science students.

There were 10 competing teams, and a group of SMSU students took first place. The team was made of Pradunna Pudasaini, Sarthak Adhikari and Luis Miguel Heyaime Bayonet. The trio did the budget forecasting challenge, and created an AI-powered web application for budget planning, tracking and forecasting.

All groups were asked to present their projects at the end of the day, which were judged by SMSU Computer Science professors Oluleye Babatunde and Dan Kaiser, and Dave Deines of Schwan’s.

Hackathons are a popular event that provides computer science students with a unique experience in working together and gaining mentorship, serving as the driving purpose as to why Yishak and Desta wanted to bring a Hackathon to Marshall.

“Hackathons are actually a huge tradition … It’s a very common thing,” Desta said. “We wanted to find a way to just actually make this (happen), and just contribute to (bringing) a really big and original (event) to the community.”

Yishak and Desta are both currently software engineers, and graduated from SMSU in 2023 with degrees in computer science.

Submitted photo: Southwest Minnesota State University students Pradunna Pudasaini, Sarthak Adhikari and Luis Miguel Heyaime Bayonet took first place in the Hackathon event, and take a picture with coordinators Bityana Yishak (left) and Tesfatsion Desta (right).

The students spent the day building and collaborating, and the Hackathon was also a beginner-friendly event that didn’t require any previous coding experience, but instead a willingness to try something new while gaining hands-on experience and mentorship.

“Since this is a huge thing for computer science students, that’s how we know about it. Me and her (Yishak) actually have been in a few online ones (Hackathons) before. We have seen how they teach you,” Desta said. “You learn a lot … A lot of people put it on their LinkedIn to get more jobs. It’s like having an internship before trying to get a job. Since the job market is really difficult, this is a way to stand out.”

Photo by Samantha Davis: Area students work together at the Hackathon event on Saturday at Southwest Minnesota State University, creating a solution to a prompted challenge.