Nine KU Students Represent University at New York “Hackathon” in August
A group of KU students travelled to New York Aug. 13-18 to participate in the ETHGlobal Hackathon. ETHGlobal is a national industry hackathon that allows students and members of industry to experiment with cutting edge web3 technologies, an umbrella term for technologies, like blockchain, that decentralize data ownership and control on the internet. Most internet applications are controlled by centralized entities that determine how they save and use end-user data.
During the event, the students worked on real-time group projects developed on Ethereum, a decentralized blockchain with smart contract functionality. The projects were then judged at the end for an opportunity to earn cash prizes from participating sponsors. The students in the KU representatives actively participate in KU Blockchain Institute (KUBI), a student-led organization of innovators through open-source research projects, industry-focused events, and technical workshops.
“(ETHGlobal) is definitely one of the most impactful hackathons in the Web3 space,” says Nischay Rawal, who led the KU group and is KUBI’s vice president of engineering. “Our students won prizes while competing against other students and full-time employees in this industry, which was really cool! (The event) was also an opportunity to meet industry professionals and find like-minded people who are collectively creating a new kind of web.”
Team one was comprised of Rawal, Wolfgang Sell, and Micah Borghese (a 2025 KU graduate), and earned a $4,000 prize from sponsors Circle and Chainlink Tracks. Team two was comprised of Sneha Thomas, Serom Kim, and Farrell Joswara, and earned a $1,165 prize from sponsors Nora Track and Flow Foundation. Both team three, comprised of Shivansh Shrivas and Achinth Ulagapperoli, and team four, comprised of Caleb Hite and Charlie Doherty, earned $165 prizes from Flow Foundation. In all, total prize value for the KU cohort was $5,500.
Hite and Doherty were also selected to participate in Cohort 2.0 of the XRPL Student Builder Residency, which was a four-week XRPL development program led by Ripple. They built two projects: Viral and Certifiable Credentials, which they presented in the Ripple Labs NYC office.