CajunCodeFest is the Lafayette-based coding competition that looks for the next innovative idea each year to help the region.
The fifth annual event in Lafayette wrapped up at the beginning of April after a week full of more than 100 students of all ages, community members, developers, and tech companies getting together to transform local parish data into Smart Community engagement apps and tools.
Throughout the competition, participants worked more than 24 hours to create unique ways for local residents to access, display and interpret civic data.
Mentors for the Fest included teachers as well as local representatives from companies and organizations such as Waitr, the Lafayette Parish School Board, and Halliburton.
Each of the four winning teams across different categories–first place winner, runner up/team favorite, best college student team, and best K-12 team– took home $5,000. The winning student teams also received Apple iPads.
Meet the winning teams below:
- First Place Winner – Popping and Locking the Stack, Team members: Hayes Guidry, Joseph “Alex” Fontenot, Blake Glaub, Joy Norwood, Ben Norwood, Connor Stanford, and Dillon Boudreaux
- Runner Up/Team Favorite – Thrive or Die, Team members: Geoff Daily, Michelle Nguyen, Johnathon Wright, Demian Neidetcher, and Brian Stanford
- Best College Student Team – Band of Squanchers, Team members: Andrew Yoshimura, Zachary Kirby, Keegan Lange, Chad Galloway, Ryan Baird, Jacob Bernard, Hoang Pham, Connor Lambert, Robert Indorf, and Austin Pohlmann
- Best K-12 Team – David Thibodeaux STEM Magnet Academy Coding Krewe, Team members: Nolan Marone, Dylan Martin, Fernando Martinez, Marcos Garces, and Team mentors Austin Clark, Haliburton, Alex Lanclos, Waitr, and Justin Centanni, Lafayette Parish School Board Member
CajunCodeFest was hosted by the Center for Business & Information Technologies at the UL Lafayette at the university’s Lafayette Research Park.