HATCH 2022: HudsonAlpha’s 5th Annual Tech Challenge

Solving biotechnology’s stickiest issues continues to be an ongoing challenge for the scientific community. 

For local high school students, college students, and some of the area’s professionals that recently participated in HudsonAlpha’s 5th Annual Tech Challenge (HATCH 2022), not only was there the possibility in gaining satisfaction in finding solutions, but there was also the potential for public recognition and perhaps, setting sail on a life-changing career path.

There was also the opportunity to win anywhere from $500-2,000 in prize money for developing and presenting useful tools based on the three challenges presented, such as creating an effective Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) data application, building an useful web app that could provide both scientifically relevant data presentation and an aesthetic design that could be used in comparing the vast diversity of fruit and nut trees, along with producing a custom web-based application to interpret pharmacogenomic data.

Although it may have sounded easy on paper for most, the teams would spend their entire weekend digging for answers, often hitting the proverbial wall, at first.

“It is going to drive you crazy, in all the right ways,” said Dr. Adam Hott, senior product manager for HudsonAlpha, as he presented the HATCH 2022 challenges to the group at its kick-off event. “This could turn where you are today into an entire career trajectory. When you hit it, when you turn that corner, it’s going to give you the confidence for everything you do in your life.”

Throughout the HATCH 2022 weekend, eager teams focused not only on developing solutions, but creating effective, eye-catching presentations to pitch their products on the very last day of the event. 

The excitement in winning goes far beyond the Hackathon, however. There’s also the potential for the products developed to be transformed into commercially marketed scientific tools. This could be life-changing for both the developers as well as the end users.

As part of a partnership with local business incubator Urban Engine and HudsonAlpha, the event was sponsored by Crossflow Technologies, Inc., Sangoma Technologies, and Women in Defense in their continued efforts to generously invest in the next generation of the bioscience workforce in Alabama.

Winning categories include:

Professional and College

First place: PGX Insight ($2,000)

Doug Casey, Katie Ostrouchov and Jake Carter

Second place: Plants on the Run ($1,000)

Grant Ingram

Third place: TreMap ($500)

Chad Etheredge, Ben Etheredge, and Morgan Burcham

High School

Your FHIR ($1,000)

William Mitchell, Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering

Sirisha Chennupati, St. John Paul II Catholic High School

Images provided by Lori Conners, the Huntsville Business Journal.