Deadlines ticked, inspiration struck, and teamwork triumphed over 14 hours of purposeful engineering under pressure. That’s how New York Tech students spent their Friday at the Spring 2025 United Engineering Hackathon!

On April 11, 2025, students from the New York City and Long Island campuses came together and dove headfirst into the fourth annual United Engineering (UE) Hackathon: Coding for a Cause—a rapid-fire, creativity-fueled challenge to design software and hardware solutions for real-world issues, all under the unifying theme of Social Good.

Teams were tasked with addressing one of five pressing social challenges: clean water, transportation, reducing waste, healthcare accessibility, and digital literacy.

Tabs multiplied across screens, brainstorming sparked, and each team began solving their challenge in their own unique way. One group created a web extension that converts text to speech to help those who are visually impaired. Another built an educational website offering interactive learning resources for people unfamiliar with technology.

A dynamic mix of alumni, current seniors, UE executive board members, faculty, and professionals from Meta and Bank of America provided feedback and guidance to teams as coaches, mentors, and judges. They noted how ambitious and resourceful the participants were—impressed not just by their ideas, but by their sheer drive.

“The UE Hackathon challenges our students not only to think creatively, but to innovate with purpose. This year’s focus on Social Good highlights how engineering and computing can serve as powerful tools for positive change—while also fostering community, collaboration, and creativity.” —Babak D. Beheshti, Ph.D., Dean, College of Engineering and Computing Sciences (CoECS)

When the dust finally settled, judges selected four Winning Teams across four categories:

Best Social Impact: Team SmartBins – revolutionizing waste separation with AI-powered guidance
Team members: Alexandra Tyan, Eugyne Robinson, Rita Chen

Best Use of Hardware: Team OpenVitals – a wearable that tracks emergency health data in real time
Team members: Nicole McCormack, Justin Bruinsma, Sodikjon Ismoilov

Best Presentation: Team Transit-for-All – bridging accessibility gaps in public transportation
Team members: Jeffrey Chu, Mohammed Abedin, Ameer Tayeh

Best Innovation: Team Sustainify – a gamified app promoting conscious consumer habits 
Team members: Deborah Olaniyi, Emerald Landry, Nathanial Dejean

Throughout the day, the energy in the room was electric—not just because of the hardware, but because of the heart behind every line of code and every diagram sketched.

“It’s very rewarding to be a coach! It’s nice seeing people’s ideas—they’re very innovative. It’s inspiring and impressive.” —Kate Blackwell, M.S. Data Science Student

“I enjoyed the challenge of building something accessible with limited time and resources. I didn’t have much experience with hardware going in, so it was incredibly rewarding to learn so much while working toward an exciting goal on a tight schedule.” —Nicole McCormack (OpenVitals), B.S. Computer Science, Third-Year Student

“Participating in the 2025 United Engineering Hackathon was an exciting and rewarding experience. It gave our team a chance to apply real-world problem-solving to a meaningful cause, and I’m proud of what we created in such a short time. It was also a great opportunity to collaborate, connect, learn, and push our technical limits.” —Alexandra Tyan (SmartBins), B.S. Computer Science, First-Year Student

“I signed up to learn something new, and I did so. I learned how to use the MTA API and the request library in Python to get the necessary real-time information for our app.” —Ameer Tayeh (Transit for All), B.S. Computer Science, First-Year Student

“Time flew by! I had never sat down for this long just to code before. This is my first hackathon and I want to go to more—not just to code, but for the fun as well!” —Vamshi Vallala, M.S. Computer Science Student

The 2025 UE Hackathon was more than just a competition—it was a celebration of student ingenuity, community, and cause-driven innovation. And if this year’s event was any indication, the future is in very capable hands.