High school seniors and current first-year and sophomore engineering students at Fairfield will have the opportunity to compete in Fairfield University School of Engineering’s inaugural hackathon competition, StagHack. The competition will be offered in a virtual format on October 24. 

A hackathon is an event for students interested in problem-solving, working on a team, and collaborating with others to solve a problem and present their solutions. At the hackathon, teams will collaborate with mentors to solve real issues in the biomedical and healthcare industry.

Solving real world problems with innovative thinking, high school seniors will form teams and compete for cash prizes and scholarship funding toward Fairfield's School of Engineering — $70,000 on the line — while interacting with industry leaders. 

“The School of Engineering is excited to be hosting the first StagHack event this coming month. We firmly believe that it is critical that we engage these bright minds towards finding solutions to the most pressing healthcare issues such as mental health, prescription drug addiction, medical debt, and many others,” said Dean Andres Leonardo Carrano, PhD. “I expect that, by working with real data and problem sets, they will push the role of technology in the solution space to the limit — and that our healthcare sponsors will walk away with a fresher, much-needed perspective. We cannot wait to see how these future engineers and computer scientists tackle these problems!”

The competition is open to any high school senior interested in the STEM field. No prior knowledge of coding is necessary, just an interest in solving problems. The competition is also open to first-year and sophomore students at the School of Engineering. This year's sponsors include Goodroot, Maestro Health, and PursueCare.

Learn more about StagHack at fairfield.edu/staghack.