COLUMBUS, Ohio — We’re excited to share the winners of GiveBackHack’s first 24-Hour Hack, a new twist on our flagship weekend event.
On November 8th and 9th, over 40 community members from Columbus, OH met at Columbus College of Art & Design to share their ideas for a more healthy, caring, and generous future. Folks from all professional backgrounds—nursing, engineering, social services, and more—formed five teams that explored chronic disease, hunger, caregiver support, charitable giving, and memory technology.
Throughout the day, teams dug into the real experiences behind these issues. They interviewed over a dozen people working in benefits, fundraising, or food access, and surveyed an additional 100 folks living with chronic disease or struggling to manage their loved ones memories.
This knowledge directly informed what teams built. Instead of polished demos, teams created simple proof-of-concepts like skits, chatbots, and physical challenges to show how their ideas could work in the real world.
At Sunday’s showcase, teams presented their projects to the judging panel and dozens of community members. And thanks to The Columbus Foundation, each team walked away with a piece of the $5,000 pot.
Now, they begin their journey beyond the weekend: validating their projects by driving impactful outcomes in food security, caregiver wellness, disease management, and more. Meet the winners below:
TheoHealth: $2,000
A conversational health diary for patients with chronic conditions.
Pitched by Kuldeep Debnath. Team: Vikranth Vegesina, Rohan Reddy, Anirudh Chinthagunta, Erica Wolf, and Troy A. Harris.
Pair 2 Care: $1,000
A peer support program developed with and for caregivers of individuals living with dementia.
Pitched by Karen Moss, PhD. Team: Wesley Giles, Yasser Kaddour, and Stephen Flynn.
Hunger Helper: $1,000
A more conscious and user-friendly database to help people facing food insecurity find meals and groceries.
Pitched by Leah Lambert. Team: Gary Yu, Keming He, Ardi Ahmed, Jonathon David, Jacob Cohen, and Precious Amoako.
My QR Stories: $500
A platform focused on preserving memories through digital QR interface technology.
Pitched by Mike McCreary. Team: Anthony Boyarko, Junna Park, Patrick Dempsey, and Matthew Svoboda.
Post It Forward: $500
An app to help people turn everyday social posts into meaningful support for charities and causes they care about.
Pitched by Erik Lehmann. Team: Michael Geiger, Jai Mansaray, Jared Stemen, Etiyene Eshett, and Conal Donovan.
Thank you to our incredible organizers, mentors, judges, community members, and participants who joined us this weekend.
The 24-Hour Hack was generously supported by The Columbus Foundation and Columbus Code & Coffee, in addition to our valued partners from Columbus College of Art & Design (venue), SEA Change (in-kind), The Carter Effect (media), and SeraphDev (developer credits).
If you’re interested in supporting one of these teams, let us know here.
