When Ananya Vangoor found a $125 parking ticket on her windshield, she paid the citation and opened her computer to find a solution. She couldn’t rectify her situation, but she was determined to make it easier for other students to avoid the same fate.

“If you understand the psychology of software engineers, we like to find solutions,” Vangoor laughed. “And automate those solutions.”

Vangoor, a Bodenhamer Fellow and computer science and mathematics major from Bentonville, Arkansas, began coding an app that reminds students parked in event parking lots on campus to move their cars before sports events.

This isn’t the first time Vangoor hacked her way into making positive change. She recently competed in JP Morgan Chase & Co.’s national CodeForGood Hackathon, where her team won first place by creating an informative app for teens that shared information on the dangers of drunk driving.

Vangoor participates in the U of A’s Association of Computing Machinery Hackathon each year, preparing her to compete at a national level.

The experience proved challenging in several ways. Students had only 24 hours to build and present their functioning app. They had never met their teammates, and their largest battle was creating an app that teens would want to download and use.

To combat apathy, the team looked to SnapChat’s virality and gamified their app by creating a “streak” functionality to encourage participants to engage in daily interactions with the platform.

It works like this: users log on, complete a reading module and answer questions related to the reading. If they get the questions right, the streak continues. If they get them wrong or don’t answer at all, the streak zeroes out. After users accrue enough points toward their streak, they win incentives, like a free rideshare home.

“It motivates you to open the app daily,” Vangoor explained. “Teenagers don’t understand the true impact of drunk driving, and we can showcase [the information] in a way that attracts engagement.”

Vangoor knew the idea was good, but the team then had to build the app from whiteboard notes into existence in only a few hours. They needed to work together efficiently and enhance each other’s strengths, but that wasn’t going to happen without camaraderie. Cleverly, they opened communication by allowing each teammate to share
their interests and skills. From there, it was easy to split into concentrations and allow each member to leverage their expertise.

The front-end team focused on the user interface and aesthetics, while the back-end team managed user registration and a database for storing information.

Lucky for Vangoor and the team, this wasn’t her first experience at a hackathon. She regularly participates in the U of A’s Association of Computing Machinery Hackathon. Through familiarity with the judging structure, she knew to focus on functionality and a visual design that was equally compelling for presentation and memorability. It wouldn’t be enough if the app simply worked because a comfortable user experience was also required.

Completing and winning a hackathon outside of the comfort of campus taught Vangoor a lot about herself too. 

“I learned how computer science students from different universities were faring in this competition and thought about my own progress,” Vangoor said. “What do I need to do to better myself for the future? It was a good opportunity for me to gauge where I’m at.”

Her success and leadership didn’t go unnoticed; Vangoor was offered a summer internship in the Software Engineer Program at JP Morgan.

“This experience will give me a better idea of what I want to do specifically in software engineering,” she shared. “Right now, my interests are in machine learning and artificial intelligence, but just being able to explore different [concentrations] within computer science gives me a greater understanding of the field.”

Vangoor has been interested in technology since middle school. She took summer classes to learn HTML and create basic websites, and now she’s using her fluency in Swift to build iOS applications and C++ and Python in her algorithm coursework.

Vangoor works closely with her mentor Tulin Kaman, associate professor of mathematical sciences and Lawrence Jesser Toll Jr. Chair.

“Ananya is an extraordinary student,” Kaman shared. “She’s highly motivated, ambitious and enthusiastic to learn and develop her computational skills. I have no doubt that she will be very successful as a tech leader.”

Like her parking notification app, Vangoor often takes on personal projects to continuously build her skills outside the classroom.

“You have to innovate in this field to survive,” Vangoor said. “I’ll always try to learn technologies and pursue my own projects.” 

Vangoor has also found support in her studies through her Bodenhamer community. In addition to financially supporting her and providing top-tier educational enrichment, she’s also inspired by the stories of Bodenhamer alumni.

“We are a close-knit group,” Vangoor said. “We meet each spring to hear what the seniors accomplished [during their tenure]. It’s led to incredible networking opportunities.”

The Bodenhamer Fellowship is also supporting Vangoor as she heads to Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima, Naoshima Art Island and Tokyo to learn about architecture, history and culture through Honors Passport: Japan.

“I’m at a stage in my studies where I want to focus on humanities as well,” Vangoor noted. “I know these [interdisciplinary] experiences will change my perspective of the world. Thanks to my fellowship, I have the time and funding to explore all my interests.”