Hampton University computer science majors showed off their skills during the 2018 Google DC Hackathon on Feb. 10 and 11. Morgan State University, Howard University and Hampton University students were given 24 hours to create an app during the competition. Hampton’s team of five sophomores took home the trophy for their app, OpenSeats.
OpenSeats is for scheduling dinners with friends. Users can signal when and where they will be eating to their nearby friends and followers.
“OpenSeats is a social platform designed to bring people together through a universal common interest: food,” said Hampton team member Marcus Sellars in a press release. “Users can schedule (or join ongoing) meals, at any restaurant, at any time, and watch as friendly and unique people join them. OpenSeats is designed for those who wish to network, explore, and meet incredible new people.”
Marcus Sellars, Tauren Bass, Taya Simmons, Coleman Scott IV and Xavier Horton originally wanted to make a cryptocurrency app, but ditched the idea when they realized it would be too complicated for users.
“We went with OpenSeats because it was easy to access and understand,” Scott said to DC Inno. “We also liked that we could integrate a lot of technologies.”
The Google DC Hackathon is a result of the Google In Residence program, which assigns experienced software engineers to historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in an effort to diversify the computer science industry. These engineers teach elective courses and serve as mentors to computer science students.
The Google in Residence program was initially launched at Howard in 2013 and expanded to 11 other HBCUs by 2015. Google also partnered with Howard in 2017 to create the Howard West program, a three-month, summer Computer Science residency for rising juniors and seniors in the University’s Computer Science program.
