The 11th Michigan IT 2024 Hacks with Friends (HWF) was split into two parts. Part 1 competition took place on November 14–15 at Arbor Lakes starting with fourteen teams. At the end of the day a public vote narrowed the field to the top four finalists that presented at the Winter Innovation Expo on December 10th at the Central Campus Classroom Building.
Representatives from the top four 2024 HWF teams from round one of the competition made a final 10-minute presentation in front of a distinguished panel of three judges and WIE attendees during the main opening session of the Expo. The 2024 Judges included Chris Casey, Marjory Falconer and Nick Gaspar. Each of the four top teams displayed a poster of their hack at the Expo Poster Session. All registered WIE attendees was able to cast their vote for the People’s Choice Award.
2024 Hacks with Friends Judges
Chris Casey, Director of Digital Education, UM-Dearborn
Marjory Falconer, Associate Director for Information Technology Administration, Office of the Vice President for Research, UM-Ann Arbor
Nick Gaspar, Distance Learning Director and Adjunct lecturer in Nursing, School of Nursing, UM-Flint
The 2024 People's Choice Award and Judges' Overall Award went to:
Pitch #11: Extend Maizey to API Directory
Team Members included: Kranthi Bandaru, ITS - Data Science Practice (Pitch Leader); Wenbin Ji, Michigan Medicine - Data Collab (Business Analyst); Kali Yilmaz, Medical School - Advanced Genomics Core (Developer); Yu Feng Lin, Information Analysis BS (Student & Brainstorm Ideas); Lance Sloan, ITS - Teaching and Learning (Developer); Michael Bleed, Dental Informatics (Developer); Payal Dangi, Michigan Medicine - Data Collab (Documentation Lead); Prithvi Dasgupta, ITS - Data Science Practice (Developer); Pushyami Gundala, ITS Teaching and Learning (Developer); Chris Rowland, ITS SysOps Webhosting (Developer); Sinji Yang, LSA Technology Services (BI Analyst & Tester); Yuying Tian, Michigan Medicine (Developer)
The Top Four Finalists Were:
Listed by pitch number, Not rank order.
Pitch #6: Agent Smith: A Community Platform to Build, Clone, and Share AI Agents
Team members: Jeffrey Rosczyk, CHCR (Pitch leader); Andrew Staley, Michigan Medicine - HITS DevOps (Graphic & Coding Support); Alan Robertson, Michigan Medicine - Central Staffing Resource (Documentation & Brainstorming); Toan Tran, SRC - Survey Methodology (Python/Backend Dev); Stephanie Cyrill, CHCR (Design); Claire Chen, CHCR (Design); Chris Marr, CHCR (Frontend Dev); Mike Nowak, CHCR (Full Stack Dev); Shelly Chang, CHCR ( Software Engineer); Brent Bendes, HITS DevOps (Engineer); and John Walsh, HITS DevOps (Support)
Goal: The goal is to design and prototype a collaborative app platform where users can not only create new AI agents but also fork and enhance existing ones, enabling continuous knowledge expansion and adaptation. This platform supports a wide range of applications, from healthcare to education, making AI customization accessible and practical for both individuals and specialized communities.
Pitch #7: Empowering Tomorrow’s Leaders Today - Shaping the Perfect Internship Experience Together
Team Members: Claire Tucker, ITS Admin Operations, Community Programs Outreach Coordinator (Co-Pitch Lead); Jared Walfish, ITS Infrastructure, Information Systems Manager (Co-Pitch Lead); Bryan Martyn, HITS, Director of Software Delivery; Kristen Bolger, ITS Support Services, Depot Operations Manager
Goals:
- Increase the number of interns that the program can support by increasing the amount of and the diversity of internship jobs available to applicants
- Encourage managers and promote the idea that hosting interns is a valuable opportunity for both for the department as well as the individual supervisor taking them on
Pitch #11: Extend Maizey to API Directory
Team Members: Kranthi Bandaru, ITS - Data Science Practice (Pitch Leader); Wenbin Ji, Michigan Medicine - Data Collab (Business Analyst); Kali Yilmaz, Medical School - Advanced Genomics Core (Developer); Yu Feng Lin, Information Analysis BS (Student & Brainstorm Ideas); Lance Sloan, ITS - Teaching and Learning (Developer); Michael Bleed, Dental Informatics (Developer); Payal Dangi, Michigan Medicine - Data Collab (Documentation Lead); Prithvi Dasgupta, ITS - Data Science Practice (Developer); Pushyami Gundala, ITS Teaching and Learning (Developer); Chris Rowland, ITS SysOps Webhosting (Developer); Sinji Yang, LSA Technology Services (BI Analyst & Tester); Yuying Tian, Michigan Medicine (Developer)
Goal: Have a Maizey project or a website as an entry point where the user can ask questions related to University data and get accurate information instead of navigating through multiple websites to view the same information. We also want to provide an authoritative source of information by utilizing the API Directory APIs which source from the PeopleSoft system and Enterprise Data Warehouse.
Pitch #14: Documentation Makeover Bot
Team Members: Dan Powell, ITS SysOps Services & Ops (Pitch Leader & Presenter); Dragan Lazin, Dearborn ITS (Systems Analysts); Kyle Espinoza, ITS SysOps Services & Ops, (Developer, Promoter & Documentation Specialist); Jamie Laundree, ITS SysOps Services & Ops, (Developer); Leslie Bell, LSA TS HPC & Storage (Developer); Mike Porter, Dentistry - Dental Informatics (Documentation Specialist); Ruth Shamraj, HITS MDC MI Data Collab (Documentation Specialist); Kristin Kovarik, ITS SysOps Services & Ops, (Developer & Presenter)
Goal: Analyze our current document repositories using Maizey, in order to create a new set of well-structured, deduplicated documents that are optimized for easy integration into a more organized and centralized repository. This initiative will enhance the accessibility, reliability, and efficiency of our internal documentation, ensuring that it is both scalable, searchable, and user-friendly for future use. Accessibility is key when it comes to documentation that is inclusive for all so we are working to develop that into our product under the guidance of SPG 601.20