Fayetteville High School Team Wins J.B. Hunt Hackathon Competition at John Brown University
Siloam Springs, Ark. (Oct. 25, 2019) – Sixty-five high school and college students from Northwest Arkansas recently competed in the J.B. Hunt Hackathon at John Brown University. The following teams finished in first, second and third place, respectively:
- Julian Sanker and Lucas Kellar – Fayetteville High School
- Daniel Norwood, Jonathan Hinerman, Joseph Hahn, Matthew King, Matthew Newton and Seth Billingsley – John Brown University
- Aaron Martinez, Bryce Sanders, Gabriel Giarrantana and Bailey Griggs – Fayetteville High School
The competition, which started at 5 p.m. on Oct. 11 and ended at 11 a.m. on Oct. 12, challenged participants to create an original, collaborative programming project around the theme of safety. Teams had all night to develop their interactive prototype, and their results were reviewed by a panel of J.B. Hunt employees at the end of the event.
"There is a great demand for computer science professionals in Northwest Arkansas,” said Ted Song, associate professor of engineering at John Brown University. “John Brown University was thrilled to work with J.B. Hunt to provide opportunities to high school and college students exploring this career field.”
The J.B. Hunt Hackathon was open to all high school, college and graduate students in Northwest Arkansas with any level of programming experience. Past participants have ranged from computer scientists to business majors to graphic designers. Participants could sign up individually or with a team of up to six people.
“Hackathons are exciting opportunities for our team to engage with the future talent in engineering and technology,” said Stuart Scott, executive vice president and chief information officer at J.B. Hunt. “J.B. Hunt was proud to bring this program to John Brown University, and we enjoyed seeing the unique solutions each team created."
Each high school student in the top three teams will receive a scholarship of up to $1,000 from John Brown University. A variety of entertainment and technology products were also awarded as individual prizes. College and graduate students that participated had the opportunity to learn about internship opportunities at J.B. Hunt.
John Brown University is a leading private Christian university, training students to honor God and serve others since 1919. As Arkansas’ top-ranked university (Wall Street Journal, 2020), JBU enrolls more than 2,200 students from 36 states and 59 countries in its traditional undergraduate, graduate, online and concurrent education programs. JBU offers more than 40 majors, with top programs including engineering, nursing, family and human services, biology, graphic design and construction management.
