STI Students Wow at UnionBank's U:Hac

December 12, 2016

In a battle of 24-hour coding marathon known as “hackathon” for tech enthusiasts, a team of young and promising programmers from STI College – Caloocan emerged as champions in the UnionBank’s U:HAC 4.0 STI Edition held in Ortigas, Pasig City.

A group shot of the UnionBank U:HAC participants

In collaboration with one of the country’s premier banking institutions, BS Information Technology (BSIT) students from STI campuses in Metro Manila were challenged to develop innovative solutions that will disrupt today’s digital banking landscape.

From 21 participating teams, three stood out and claimed victory with their creativity, technical know-how, and critical thinking.

STI College – Caloocan took home the 1st prize with their comprehensive and flexible Union Mobile System mobile app that seeks to eliminate long lines and queuing. The team is composed of Steven Lim, Exequiel Egbert Ponce, Carlo Cuevas, Julius Aldrin Cervantes, and Willison Velasco — all 4th year students who knew each other as competitors in their school’s programming contests.

Meanwhile, STI College – MuñozEDSA developed Rising Farmers, a system that will allow farmers to negotiate and sell their produce directly to supermarkets and consumers via web and mobile applications. This conscientious and inventive solution of Jonel Belandres, Erick John Reyes, and Ryan Amian got them the 2nd place.

Summing up in 3rd place is STI College – Tanauan composed of Daniel Eduard Andal, Joshua Sahagun, and Renz Paolo Yedra with their student attendance monitoring app called Take Your Time. The app will help students keep track of their schedules and has a feature that auto-generates an SMS text to inform their parent or guardian of their whereabouts in school.

Guiding the students on this two-day event are various industry experts who served as their mentors, teaching them the how-to’s of business pitching and the technical aspects of programming and “hacking.”

For the participants who already find web and software coding to be a hobby, the 24-hour non-stop coding marathon proved to be a delightful trial for them. "Na-train na kami sa school dahil sa IT Projects, thesis, at OJT namin," Carl of the STI College – Caloocan team notes of their activities in STI.

Aside from the cash prize amounting to PhP100,000 for the students of STI College – Caloocan, the winning school also got an educational package courtesy of UnionBank.

The U:HAC 1st prize winners from STI College — Caloocan

Impressed with the students’ prowess and passion for the field of IT, UnionBank seeks to continue U:HAC in the following years to come. On the other hand, STI will be ready to join as the institution seeks to train more innovative contributors in the field of Information Technology.