North Carolina A&T Repeats as HBCU Hackathon National Champions

A mobile app designed to enhance the car buying experience propelled a team of budding tech entrepreneurs from North Carolina A&T State University, as the school won Black Enterprise Magazine’s TechConneXT BE Smart Hackathon for the second consecutive year.

N.C. A&T Takes Top Spot at Black Enterprise Hackathon for Second Year

Greensboro, N.C. (Oct. 11, 2017) – For the second consecutive year a team of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University computer science students took home the top prize for Black Enterprise’s TechConneXt Summit BE SMART hackathon in Silicon Valley.

The Aggie++ team, comprised of computer science majors Brandon Long, Aaren Avery, Kaila Billie and Jean Olivier Beya, took home a $40,000 cash prize for their concept.

From a release:

Fifteen HBCU teams were charged with creating a virtual retail environment for Toyota and implementing a better and more personalized user experience for customers. TASHA allows users to access public data for all current vehicle models, explore a vehicle through a 360-degree virtual reality experience of what it’s like to sit in the car, obtain recommendations based on real-time responses and more.

The team’s presentation included a simulation of the app’s capabilities like providing directions to the dealership and a specific car, alerting a dealer of arrival, requesting the keys for a test drive and answering specific questions. The team made provision for nearly every scenario.

.@ncatsuaggies are up to present to #techcnxt attendees #behack Pitch by Magnolia Prime founder at #TECHCNXT https://t.co/vLmQcgpA3m

— Black Enterprise (@blackenterprise) October 10, 2017

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