Students win contest, prize money in Nationwide Hackathon
New programs that use artificial intelligence, gamification and an easier customer experience won three college teams recognition and cash prizes in the 2022 Nationwide Hackathon.
Students from the University of Cincinnati, Rutgers University and Marietta College were the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners, respectively, of the Fortune 100 insurance and financial services provider’s month-long Hackathon. This year’s contest tasked participants to work in teams of one-to-five people to build a digital solution that utilizes Nationwide’s application programming interface (API) offerings within its Nationwide Partner Portal. Contest winners were announced on April 6 and are:
- First place – Samir Idris, University of Cincinnati, for a property insurance recognition API that uses artificial intelligence to capture images, expedite the claim process and build a personalized quote. Prize: $8,000 and a Nationwide internship.
- Second place – Roy Houwayek, Maksims Kurjanovics Kravcenko, Debdij Mazumder, Kalrav Pandit and Raghunandan Wable, Rutgers University, for a simplified safety education API that incorporates gamification to create incentives for policyholders to learn about auto and home safety topics. Prize: $1,500.
- Third place – Kade W. Hennacy, Kai Hennacy and Austin Offenberger, Marietta College, for an e-commerce, online claims API that can recommend replacement items to users immediately after filing their claim. Prize: $500.
“I want to congratulate all of the winners and participants of this year’s Hackathon,” said Mike Richardson, Nationwide’s senior vice president and chief technology officer for Strategy, Data & Innovation. “The teams did an outstanding job of leveraging Nationwide's open platform to create meaningful solutions for our members. The ideas and concepts the teams created are truly exciting and innovative."
The 2022 Nationwide Hackathon ran throughout the month of March. More than 460 teams registered for the event, representing colleges and universities from across the United States. By entering, teams were given exposure to the Nationwide talent pipeline and the company’s hiring decision makers. Entries were judged by a panel of Nationwide Technology executives, as well as insurance technology leaders from Google, a Hackathon partner.
Entries were designed to be API offerings within the Nationwide Partner Portal, a platform that enables Nationwide partners and developers to digitally collaborate with the company on the delivery of insurance and financial products. For example, by leveraging Nationwide APIs, a partner company can confirm their customer’s insurance coverage instantaneously, virtually eliminating the need for a phone call to the Nationwide service center, an option especially useful for mortgage lenders and property management companies.
To explore open roles at Nationwide, visit the careers page.