Hackathons invite people (mostly students) representing different areas of expertise to spend 24 hours putting their heads together on solving user or business problems. The goal? To come up with solutions and win the competition.
It’s the perfect place to expand CSL’s outreach and meet potential future employees, which is why CSL recently sponsored and participated in hackathons at Drexel University in Philadelphia, North Carolina State in Raleigh and Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in New York state. CSL volunteers staffed a CSL table, served as mentors and helped judge the competitions.
“These events play a critical role in attracting diverse talent, fostering meaningful connections with future leaders, and reinforcing CSL’s culture of collaboration and innovation”, said Srikanth Ramachandran, Associate Director, Testing COE and I&T Tools
“We were thrilled with the talent and energy of all involved and were impressed with how many spent time at our CSL table discussing technology, plasma donation and more,” said Delilah Harden, Director, End User Support Services.
At Hack_NCState, innovation challenges were fantasy-themed: The Sanctuary, The Nexus and Fortune’s Keep. The NC State event attracted students from other schools, including the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; the University of North Carolina-Greensboro; the University of North Carolina-Asheville; and the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.
RIT welcomed 175 participants and nine team submissions to CSL’s category of "Best Public Health App Focusing on Vaccines or Rare Diseases.” Each submission was well planned, creative, and fun, Harden said. At RIT, HealthScope! won with a submission that included the use of Python, Panda, Gemini AI and UMAP to create a fun, visual app focused on the impact of medical data bias.
Drexel University welcomed over 400 participants with 97 projects. Out of five submissions, the CSL winners were GeneSight, which proposed an innovative way to increase plasma donations and VaxiNation, for its creative solution to combatting flu vaccine fatigue. The winners from Drexel, in nearby Philadelphia, will visit CSL’s King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, campus to present their solution to members of the CSL Team.
