UTD Teams Win Big at Hackathon

Teams of UTD students — with the help of one Longhorn — won awards at HackTX. Photo courtesy of HackTX.

Two UT Dallas student teams won awards at HackTX, a 24-hour annual hackathon at UT Austin.

Friendzy, which consists of three Comets and one Longhorn collaborator, received Facebook’s “Community Building Award” that was given “ to the team whose hack helps build community and bring the world closer together.” The Friendzy team developed a Facebook chatbot that connects people with other locals who have similar interests.

Meanwhile, the Tunify team won Microsoft’s “Best Microsoft Hack” and ExxonMobil’s “Gas Station of the Future” award.

“The Facebook and Microsoft awards were the most major/competitive spot prizes,” said Brian Hoang, a member of the Friendzy team, “so UTD teams winning both plus another prize was quite an accomplishment.”