Ritchie School Students Host an Innovative and Collaborative Hackathon Event

This spring quarter, Ritchie School students organized and hosted an incredible event — a 25-hour hackathon aimed at improving campus life. 

We chatted with two of the event’s key organizers, Ashley Alfaro, a fourth-year computer science and math student, and Denver Persinger, a third-year computer science student with minors in leadership and math. Aside from their academic activities, they also run the Algorithms Club—Ashley as president and Denver as vice president. 

The event brought together students from the University of Denver (DU), Metropolitan State University (MSU), and the University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver), challenging them to collaborate across schools and build something meaningful. The teams – split into groups of six to seven students - were encouraged to form groups with people they didn’t know. The result? A diverse team of students - many of whom were building full scale projects for the first time - building impressive projects using technologies like MERN stack and React. 

Organizing the hackathon was no small feat. Ashley, Denver, and fellow Ritchie School student Tran took charge, coordinating everything from logistics to making sure the event ran smoothly. Their hard work paid off—the competition was a huge success! A team of five MSU students and one CU Denver student took home the winning prizes - trophies and a $200 gift card. 

Beyond coding, the event turned into an unexpected networking opportunity for everyone involved. Students were able to meet and work with their peers from other universities, connect with like-minded individuals, and build relationships that would go beyond the hackathon. Ashley and Denver especially valued the chance to engage with students from outside the DU community. 

The experience wasn’t just rewarding for the participants—it was a learning experience for the organizers, too. Ashley, despite her leadership experience with Algorithms Club, had never planned something this big before. The event gave her firsthand lessons in patience, communication, networking, and time management. For Denver, the event gave him the opportunity to learn and hone his project management skills that he knows will be useful throughout his career. Managing an event of this scale gave both Ashley and Denver a glimpse of what it’s like to coordinate large teams, a crucial skill in computer science and software engineering. 

Looking ahead, Ashley and Denver are already brainstorming how next year’s hackathon can push students in new directions. Whether it’s a fresh theme or an even bigger challenge!