By Angelita Faller

GRAMBLING, LA – Louisiana has the sixth highest adult obesity rate in the county, but a personal fitness app from Grambling State University is hoping to change that.

The app is the product of Grambling’s first Hackathon, a 48-hour event where students from historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) create a mobile app over the course of a weekend. The event was held March 20-22 in the Jacob T. Stewart building.

Black Founders created the HBCUHacks program to provide students at HBCUs with the opportunity to learn coding, design and business skills. According to Monique Woodard, founder and executive director of Black Founders, African Americans are drastically underrepresented in the technology workforce. At powerhouse technology company Google, only 1 percent of its tech workforce is Black.

“For us, Hackathons aren’t just a weekend of coding. It’s a way to get students interested in learning more about tech careers and to get them into the tech career pipeline. There are so few Black professionals in tech, and we really see that as a very lucrative profession in the future of the economy. We would like more Black representation in the industry,” Woodard said.

The winning app, created by Team Get Fit, matches profiles of people who want to get fit with nearby personal trainers.

“We created an app focused on health, making the search for a personal trainer very convenient. Our main purpose is to close the void when it comes to personal training from a distance, because we believe that defeats the purpose,” said Jarett Triplett, a junior computer sciences major.

As winners of the Hackathon, Triplett and his teammate, Dairen Lambert, received certificates for new tablets from GSU’s Barnes & Noble bookstore. Not only does their app match up personal trainers with potential clients, but it also hosts a library of video workouts for people who want to have better control of their time.

“If you want to work out your abs, but you only have 20 minutes before you have to get to work, you can choose a 15-minute ab workout video,” Triplett said.

Two other teams competed in the Hackathon, creating apps geared toward educating people about African American history and promoting campus events.

Team BlackCard, consisting of students Jaron Clark, E’Vonne Gipson and Qudus Oduniyi, created a mobile trivia game based on Black culture and history. The app is geared toward schools and the general public, hoping to teach people about African American culture and their contributions to history.

“The Hackathon was very informative and inspired me to learn more about the power of technology, because it heavily impacts the lives of this generation. My group was inspired to make a Black History Month trivia game app to give youth and adults a platform to learn and enjoy learning about African American culture,” Gipson said.

Team Aerialistic created GEvents, an app meant to easily promote and organize the details of campus events held at GSU. If the app is successful at Grambling, Team Aerialistic planned to expand the app to GSU-alumni sponsored events at well.

David Aubrey, the North Louisiana Regional Director of External Affairs for AT&T Inc. and Hackathon judge, said Team Get Fit won because of their innovative and creative ideas and passion for a product with good revenue potential.

“Get Fit was good. They were passionate about their idea. Fitness is something that is universal in this country and certainly needed. It’s a growing phenomenon. People are interested, and there are ways to generate revenue and create advertisements,” he said.

In December, AT&T awarded Grambling a $15,000 grant to sponsor the Hackathon.

“AT&T supports activities that promote the advancement of minority students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects. We recognize there is a shortage, and we want to support institutions like HBCUS and activities that hopefully grow our workforce,” Aubrey said. “As an alumnus, it’s great to be able to come back and be a part of this. It seems more special to be engaged in this.”

The other judges included Yenumula Reddy, a mathematics professor at Grambling, and Avinash Reddy and Rama Sreedhara, both of CenturyLink.

Black Founders is planning to return to Grambling for a second Hackathon in the fall.

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