Students participate in 2nd SMSU ‘hackathon’
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MARSHALL -- Students from a dozen different universities and high schools gathered at Southwest Minnesota State University over the weekend for the second annual Southwest MN Hacks event. Organized by SMSU alumni, the "hackathon" event gave computer science students 24 hours to build solutions to real-world technology problems facing businesses.
The event in Marshall was co-founded by Bityana Yishak and Tesfatsion Desta, who are both SMSU alumni. The two wanted to help develop talent in computer science, and make connections with businesses.
Yishak said a total of 53 high school and college students came to the SMSU conference center on Saturday and Sunday to participate in the hackathon.
"The name is misleading," she said. The event isn't about computer hacking, but building and coding tools to help meet a business need or solve a problem. Teams are judged on a final presentation, and the projects they create.
This year, students heard from keynote speakers, including Dave Deines, vice president of IT business relationship management at Schwan's Company. They also received challenges provided by CJ Schwan's and Minnesota Soybean Processors. In working on the challenges, students explored areas including workforce skills, employee development, artificial intelligence, and community needs like improving access to child care information.
Yishak said winning last year's hackathon led to new opportunities for one group of students. The 2026 first-place team of Pradunna (Pascal) Pudasaini, Sarthak Adhikari, and Luis Miguel Heyaime Bayonet received a paid opportunity to continue developing their project for Schwan's.