When Austin McCleary ’22 (Marietta, Ohio) paid for a recent meal at the Busy Bee Restaurant, he proudly used a $50 gift card he won from Marietta College.
The gift card was his prize for naming the Entrepreneurship Hackathon, which is now called PioSolve. A panel of eight judges selected the name from 17 entries, six of which made it to the semifinal.
The mission of PioSolve is to engage students in problem-based, multidisciplinary learning by providing the opportunity to examine the root causes of local and global social, environmental, political, and economic problems and find creative solutions that students themselves can put into action.
The main way that PioSolve is different from other hackathons is that the recommended solutions must result in actionable items that the student competitors themselves can potentially put into action. For example, students can’t simply say the government should do “this” to solve a problem. Rather, they need to offer a solution that the team of students can potentially begin the process of its implementation.
The first PioSolve competition is scheduled for 8:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m., Saturday, February 18th.
For more information, visit www.marietta.edu/hackathon.