The U of A Association of Computing Machinery hosted this year's HogHack, attracting 150 participants for the overnight contest on April 12 and 13. Teams of students competed for prizes and accolades by developing pieces of computer software or hardware.

The event was also sponsored by J.B. Hunt, SupplyPike, ArcBest, the McMillon Innovation Studio, Garmin and Netsmart and had over a dozen industry professionals, alumni and professors as judges.

Jack Norris, an electrical engineering and computer science student and ACM president, said, "This year, we brought in MLH (Major League Hacking) as a partner for our event. They are a nationwide non-profit that helps orchestrate hackathons at top universities throughout the nation. We decided to work with them in order to lay the groundwork for HogHacks to become one of the biggest hackathons in the region."

Norris said, "We want to give UARK students an opportunity to network with the students in the region and build awesome tech with them. While some classes at UARK give the opportunity for something similar, none do it on this scale. In addition, we provide free food and shirts to students so that they can focus simply on building something they're proud of!"

The winners of the Hoghack are the GymQuest project group, which consists of Amadeo Costaldi, Alex Prill, Charles Hinrichs, Hunter Fountain II, Benjamin Kensington and Alfonso Flores. GymQuest is an Android native app based in Kotlin using Firebase cloud services and Python API's to call Macro and Claude3. It provides the user with a custom workout routine and uses an AI storyteller to create a custom narrative experience with rewards based on "quest" completion and RPG-like stat growth.

The second-place winner was the EZ Reps group, consisting of Benjamin Edens, Caleb Smith, Eric Moises and Eduardo Tenorio. The third-place winner was the Disco Train group, consisting of Hayden Threlfall, Grace Harding, Andrew Burroughs, Josef Frankhouse and Thalia Hawkins. 

Norris said, "We had 200-plus signups, nearly 180 attendees (174 participants to be exact), 30-plus projects submitted and over $12,000 in sponsorship funds." Although it wasn't without its "bugs," the event was a hit with students.

Several cameo awards were also given to teams. These are listed below: 

MLH Best Domain Name from GoDaddy Registry

• Pickleball Pick Me by Pickleball Crowd Meter

  • Joe Wilkin

  • Evan Bonar

  • Amit Patil

  • David Nystrom

MLH Best DEI Hack Sponsored by Fidelity

• Wellness Warrior by Data Divas

  • Sophia F

  • Avie Timby

  • Chloe Burgess

  • Laasya Ravipati

MLH Best Use of Starknet

• DORA by Boba Lovers

  • Scott Eagleson

  • Alvaro Garcia

  • Joshua Yustana

  • Christopher Heffernan

MLH Best Use of Kintone

• Spot On Posture by Even Older

  • Ananya Vangoor

  • Ben Fletcher

  • Donna Thakadipuram

  • Nicholas DeVilliers 

MLH Sauce Labs Raffle

• Visual Macronutrient Calculator by BOSE QC

  • Steven Lynch

  • Alex Tran

  • Ali Khan

  • Raheem Shanti

  • Seth Howard