Running school remotely has been a significant challenge for all schools this year. A team of WITS students provided an award-winning solution, taking first place in HackItTogether, an annual Hackathon for woman, run by Touro's Lander College. The 12-hour, full-day event, had teams working on hacks for online education that would either solve a problem or address a need. Hackers had to develop a new program and write all their own code.
Students competed with teams from other universities and high schools such as NYU, Texas State, Trinity University, Bradley University, Bais Yaakov of Baltimore and more. The first-place prize this year went to our very own WITS Team 1 for a project called "Mistaken Identities"! The team included Avigayil Schuchman, Devroah Preiser, Chava Meth, Rivka Weiskopf, and Aliza Klein as well as their mentors Ora Attar and faculty member Sarena Schwartz. Using mysql and python code, the team created a feature on Zoom that would allow students who are COVID-19 positive to bypass the waiting room and go directly into their "classroom." With classes being run both remotely and on campus, students are required to get approval before joining a remote class. This feature would allow students to fill out a form stating they are COVID-19 positive and would therefor not require teachers approval to join the online class, allowing teachers to remain focused on instruction.
The contest was judged based on factors such as innovation, usability, problem solving, and technical achievement. The judges expressed that they were extremely impressed with the WITS students! Congratulations to all the WITS participants for taking on this exciting challenge!
Komen