1871’s Tech Challenge Recap + Winners!

Friday, October 16th marked the success of the 11th Annual Tech Challenge event! This year was particularly exciting being the first Tech Challenge held by 1871 since the merger with ITA, and our first time putting on Tech Challenge virtually.

Tech Challenge is a special event specifically designed for students and this year we extended our reach to recent grads as well. Over 200 students/recent grads participated from states all over the country!

The event consisted of two phases. Phase one was the qualifying challenge in which students/recent grads had to complete a coding challenge online. Next, came phase two. After all qualifying challenges were taken, the top coders were invited to attend the virtual main event and given the chance to take home part of the $10,000 cash prize.

At the virtual main event, students were able to meet with tech leaders and innovators, connect with their peers, have their resumes placed in front of our network of hiring partners, and attend one-of-a-kind workshops. We were thrilled with the turn out of such talented students this year and it was warming to see all of the connections being made. 

We would first like to say thank you to all of the students/recent grads who took the time to participate in the coding challenge. It was extremely close this year and you should all be incredibly proud of yourselves.

And now, the winners! A big congratulations to all of the winners of the Tech Challenge.

Top 5 Female-Identifying Winners:

1. Lynn Z., University of Chicago
2. Adela D.,  University of Chicago
3. Rinku N., Arizona State University
4. Kasturi J., University of Illinois at Chicago
5. Michelle Wei X., DePaul University  & Chen L.,  University of Chicago (tied for 5th)

Top 5 Male-Identifying Winners:

1. Alan Jin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2. Jonathan A., University of Notre Dame
3. Farrell F., University of Washington
4. George K., University of Chicago
5. Harish K., Georgia Institute of Technology & Jacob N.,  University of Iowa (tied for 5th) 

We’d also like to give a final thank you to our incredible Tech Challenge sponsors. Thank you to our presenting sponsor State Farm and our coding challenge & tech interview sponsor Karat. As well as a thank you to all of our silver sponsors Abbvie, Alight, Capsule, Centro, Comcast Business, Gordon Food Service, OppLoans, and TransUnion. 

This year’s Tech Challenge participating universities and programs include:

• Arizona State University
• ArtCenter College of Design Pasadena
• Babson College
• Beloit College
• Boston University
• California State Polytechnic University
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Columbia University
• DePaul University
• DePauw University
• DeVry University
• Duke University
• Flatiron School
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• Illinois Institute of Technology
• Illinois Wesleyan University
• Ivy Tech Community College
• Lewis University
• Loyola University Chicago
• Missouri University of Science and Technology
• Moraine Valley Community College
• New Jersey Institute of Technology
• Northeastern University
• Northern Illinois University
• Northwestern University
• Ohio University
• Olivet Nazarene University
• Purdue University
• Purdue University Northwest
• Stanford University
• State University of New York at Buffalo
• Trinity Christian College
• University of Alabama in Huntsville
• University of Chicago
• University of Cincinnati
• University of Illinois at Chicago
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• University of Indianapolis
• University of Iowa
• University of Michigan
• University of Minnesota Twin Cities
• University of North Carolina
• University of Notre Dame
• University of Texas, Austin
• University of Washington
• University of Wisconsin- La Crosse
• Yale University
• York University