What is a Hackathon? Contrary to
what it seems, a hackathon is not an exclusively programming event. The three
engineering students arrived Friday (Sept. 8th) night at Upward Hartford, the
co-working space that hosted the event. They found out that Hackathons are for
anyone with an idea, a competitive spirit, and desire for knowledge. The only
things necessary include coffee, a laptop, and an open mind.
The general theme of the hackathon,
insurance technology, was presented as a broad challenge, inviting innovation
and imagination to come up with new ideas to tackle current issues with the technology
in the insurance business. Ideas were pitched and teams were formed as
“companies” to create a product and workable business plan. The 48-hour
marathon of research, design, and development began.
Kaiti, Nicole, and Erin, the three
CETA engineering students, joined Mode, a team of eclectic strangers whose
diversity in experience and excitement for the event made the hackathon truly
enjoyable. In addition, the team includes an English grad with a passion for
coding, two insurance company employees with a dream and the programming
know-how to make it happen, and a few business students from UConn. CETA
students did front-end coding to make the website usable and conducted research
into many aspects of the insurance industry. The students learned about all
aspects of creating a technology start-up, including development, marketing,
research & development, and financing. The idea of Mode became a real
insurance company for all phone-based e-commerce. The team worked specifically
on a very innovative aspect of the company for the 48-hour weekend, and by the
end, they had created a business plan, a financial plan, and a live demo of the
app.
Team Mode won first place in the
competition and was awarded numerous opportunities to continue developing the
company at Upward Hartford, along with the $5000 monetary prize. CETA students
were also able to take advantage of the wonderful opportunity to network with
professionals in the insurance and technology industry.
Follow the link to read the press release from Insurtech Hartford:
https://www.insurtechhartford.com/single-post/2017/09/10/InsurTech-In-Winning-MODE
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