The Office of Enterprise Technology Services reported highlights from the ninth annual Hawaii Code Challenge at the Jan. 14 IT Steering Committee meeting, underscoring the event’s role in education and state workforce development.

James Gonzer, ETS public information officer and communications manager, said the Nov. event at University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu drew broad participation. “There was, what, more than a 120 people there,” Gonzer said, noting teams of high‑school students, college students and young professionals worked on civic‑facing coding challenges that could produce usable tools for state government.

Why it matters: ETS said the code challenge serves as both an educational pipeline and a workforce development activity, providing exposure to state problems and potential recruitment opportunities for state government and vendor partners.

Event details
- Attendance and participants: More than 120 attendees including high school teams, college teams and young professionals; organizers said the caliber of submissions and participants was high and attracted vendor interest.
- Awards and prizes: Nine winning teams shared $8,000 in total prizes (first place $3,000; second $2,000; third $1,000, with other placements receiving smaller awards).
- Venue and partners: UH West Oʻahu hosted the event; ETS credited university partners and private sponsors such as Transform Hawaii Government for support. Gonzer said ETS depends heavily on sponsors to stage the event and that the code challenge is not primarily funded through state appropriations.
- Workforce development: ETS said the event includes outreach to high schools and colleges and that the agency plans more workshops and earlier high‑school engagement for the next (10th) event.

Ending: ETS staff said the code challenge is a key annual outreach and workforce development activity and that planning has begun for a 10th anniversary event in November, with an increased focus on recruiting high‑school teams and expanding sponsor relationships.