Girgis, Sethi, Hausheer

(EWING, NJ) -- The four-person winning team of Kyrollos Girgis, Christopher Hausheer, and Dhruv Sethi, all from Middlesex College, and Shahnawaz Haque from the New Jersey Institute for Technology, created an inflatable cylindrical-shaped robot, the "Expand-a-Conda," in 24 hours to win first prize for "Best Overall Hack" and "Best AI Application Built with Cloudflare" at a 24-hour hackathon hosted at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) in February.

For their victory, Girgis, Hausheer, Sethi, and Haque, won a state-of-the-art gaming monitor and a gold-plated winner badge. More than 50 members of Middlesex College's Computer Science Club participated in the hackathon.

“The collaborative energy was electric and the late nights blurring into early mornings were fueled by the thrill of innovation, pushing our skills in artificial intelligence, robotics and 3D printing to the limit,” said Sethi. “The hackathon wasn’t just about code, it was about pushing boundaries, learning from each other and making a significant societal impact.”

The winning project was inspired by the tragic earthquakes in Turkey last year.

Watching search efforts for people trapped in rubble after earthquakes, the team came up with the concept for an airbag that could squeeze in and around surfaces of destroyed buildings and use heat sensing technology to find trapped survivors. The bag was puncture-resistant and nimble.

“I have never created anything similar to this idea before, so I had to rely on my background as an engineering science major in problem solving and prototyping,” said Hausheer. “I made iterative goals for myself and tested many prototypes learning useful information each time to improve the final design.”

Hackathons are competitions where teams have typically 24 hours to build a product that is useful to modern life from scratch. Sleep is rare and breakthroughs are common.

“I cannot be any prouder than this,” said Middlesex College Business and Computer Science Professor Dhruv Chunawala, who is also the faculty advisor to the Computer Science Club. “My number one goal is to make students ready for the real world. With the club, we always try to touch on the latest and greatest technology and how we can implement it to make the world a better place.”

With AI technology evolving each day, Chunawala admits that classroom experience can only go so far. That’s why the Computer Science Club, the biggest club on campus with almost 120 members, ventures out to get real-world experiences.

Chunawala also tries to create networking opportunities for members of the Computer Science Club and workshops that let students establish professional identities on job-searching sites like LinkedIn. He would also love to see the College host its own hackathon one day.

“After it was all said and done, I was very pleased with our finished project,” said Girgis. “I would have been satisfied without the win, but it was well deserved for my team and me.”

Middlesex College, established in 1964, is a public, two-year institution of higher education located in the heart of New Jersey. With a main campus in Edison and centers in New Brunswick and Perth Amboy, Middlesex College offers over 85 degree and certificate programs encouraging its more than 10,000 students to explore, grow, and thrive. Middlesex College, through dedicated faculty, state-of-the-art educational facilities, and holistic student supports, is committed to providing a high-quality, affordable college education that provides every student an opportunity for growth and achievement. Middlesex College is Middlesex County’s premier destination for lifelong learning and workforce training.