UD and State Agencies Team Up for AI Hackathon

UD and State Agencies Team Up for AI Hackathon
Hennovate the State paired students with state employees to build AI tools for real agency problems

NEWARK, Del. — More than 40 students from the University of Delaware (UD), Penn State and area high schools spent three days building AI and machine learning tools to solve real Delaware government problems, as part of the Hennovate the State hackathon held August 17 to 19 at UD’s STAR Campus, FinTech Innovation Hub.

The event, hosted by the First State AI Institute at UD in partnership with the State of Delaware and the Department of Technology and Information (DTI), matched student teams with case studies submitted directly by state agencies. Problems spanned records management, public-facing customer service, transportation and infrastructure planning, workforce and benefits administration, and internal reporting.

Ten agencies contributed case studies: DTI; the Department of Finance; the State Auditor’s Office; the Department of Education; Courts; the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control; the Division of Child Support Services within the Department of Health and Social Services; the Department of Transportation; the Department of State Division of the Arts; and the Department of Labor.

“Delaware’s greatest resource has always been our people – their willingness to roll up their sleeves, think differently, and solve problems,” said Governor Matt Meyer. “With Hennovate, we’re bringing the next generation of innovators together with the people who serve Delawareans every day, challenging all of us to find new ways to make government work better, faster, and smarter. When we open the doors of government to fresh ideas and new perspectives, everybody wins.”

“This hackathon shows what’s possible when state government and higher education work side by side,” said Bob Osmond, Delaware’s Chief Information Officer. “Our agency partners brought real problems to the table, and these students brought fresh thinking and sharp technical skills. That’s how we find AI solutions that actually work for the people of Delaware.”

Agency staff with firsthand knowledge of each problem were paired with student teams of four to five for the full three days, providing context and explaining the practical limits of government work. Mentors from AWS, Google, Microsoft, and NVIDIA contributed compute platforms and worked with teams to help apply AI tools to their projects.

“This is our fifth hackathon in the series of hackathons we have been running at the University of Delaware. What makes this year special for us is working closely with our own State of Delaware agencies and understanding more in-depth about their datasets and the problems. We are super excited that we could provide suitable solutions for these real-world problems using Machine Learning techniques and AI tools,” said Sunita Chandrasekaran, Director, First State AI Institute.

Winning teams were recognized in four categories:

• Best Impact/ Team DNREC: Sebastian Ortega, Varsha Danduri, Trevor Wiggins, Suma Tata
• Best Problem Execution/ Team Delaware Courts: Amarnath Goud Mammidipally, Connor Vitz, Indu Reddy, Om Tilekar, Prathmesh Sudhir Karale
• Best Technical Depth/ Team DelDOT: Esther Weyer, Rahul Patel, Lakshmi Nagendra Neelakantam, Nikki Dong
• Best Creativity/ Team Department of Labor: Aidan Haack, Arron Ye, Kosiso Madu, Reshmitha Uppala

For DTI and its agency partners, the hackathon offered a low-cost way to test AI ideas before committing to full projects. Promising concepts will be evaluated for future development, and agencies left with a clearer sense of where AI can realistically help their teams.

Hatching bold ideas for the First State.

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Media Contact:
Christina Dirksen, Director of Government Affairs and Media Relations, DTI
Christina.Dirksen@delaware.gov

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