Hackathon competitors traverse disciplines, defy boundaries

In a grueling 38-hour-long competition hosted by &hacks X, more than 250 William & Mary hackers representing nearly every discipline competed in the annual Hackathon Oct. 4-6 in Swem Library.

The &hacks X team writes in their newsletter that each year they plan this event for students to create “interdisciplinary projects that address real-world challenges,” challenging entrants to “go beyond coding, inspiring them to become problem-solvers, leaders, and innovators in tech” -- and above all -- to showcase “their ‘&’.”

1693 Scholar Alex Cooper ’25, Sebastian Canido ’25, and Leana Gyalokay ’27, the architects of this year’s winning project Hell on Wheels, embodied this interdisciplinary approach by creating a game at the nexus of accessibility and inclusivity.

Designed as a pixel art endless runner game, Hell on Wheels was meant to reference the difficulties disabled students and those with mobility issues face across various landscapes. In this instance, the team focused specifically on how students navigate W&M's campus.

Cooper, a computational and applied mathematics and statistics (CAMS) and psychology double major, coded the game to speak to her lived experience as a student with mobility issues. Facing obstacles and adapting, Cooper shared, is a daily process with which she has gained an acute and intimate understanding.

“Being a wheelchair user on campus was a complete restructuring of my understanding of what it means to work and to improve and to get through the day,” Cooper explained. “Having people on my side, having support and being able to learn and adapt and grow in a space like a Hackathon where the stakes are low, but the ability to improve is high, is so important to me, and having friends who have been there by my side, thick and thin, is also so important to me.”

Canido, a business analytics major who designed the game’s aesthetics, mentioned that along with inspiration from the university campus, the “other setting was inspired by Blair Hall,” due to the building’s particularly striking visuals. He shared the process of learning about the unique challenges students with mobility issues face, especially through his friendship with Cooper, and expressed his enthusiasm at being able to participate in his first Hackathon while working on such an important project.

Cooper extended his gratitude to Canido and Gyalokay for their fierce support in navigating “the smaller accessibility difficulties that one might not normally think about.” He shared that they have played a huge role in his ability “to still experience this campus fully.”

Additionally, Cooper expressed that he has participated in coding competitions since high school and finds the Hackathon to be a continuous space of comfort and creativity. Hackathons showed Cooper “the creative side of computer science,” and proved to be the perfect venue to showcase their team’s winning, interdisciplinary approach.

“When we started making the project, Sebastian did the art, Liana did the music, and I did the coding. It was kind of a new area of exploration for all of us. That's one of the things that was the most challenging about it, but also the most beautiful about it,” Cooper said.

Cooper added, “We were able to take from a variety of different experiences and bring them to the computer science world, and we were kind of starting with a fresh point of view. We were able to have diversity of thought and ideas and creativity, and that's really what propelled us forward.”

Participating in the Hackathon for the first time this year, prospective computer science major Gyalokay shared her experience designing the soundtrack for Hell on Wheels.

“I might not have known how to use the software that I used, but I have a lot of musical experience,” Gyalokay said. While translating her past experiences to code, she said, “I learned a lot about how to make music doing that, and now I feel like I could make my own software.”

The unique knowledge and experience each hacker can bring to the table is “very useful and very valuable,” Gyalokay emphasized. Canido firmly agrees with his teammate, emphasizing the importance of the “&” as a commitment to uplifting all experiences and “uniting different interests.”

Hell on Wheels represents this commitment to including a diverse array of experiences and forms of knowledge, and the ability to adapt to the unique obstacles and “invisible barriers” that may block one's path.

Cooper expressed her devotion to using computer science (CS) as a tool for advocacy work, saying, “the problem-solving process and creativity and passion is something that is so close to my heart.”

“The civic duty and responsibility of any person who is into computer science and has that capability is to try to make things to help people and have the ability to do that in a creative way, in a spontaneous way, and in a way that implements teamwork,” Cooper said. “I think everyone should do a Hackathon, regardless of your skill level, regardless of your interests, and I really hope that that kind of culture can permeate throughout the CS industry and beyond.”