University Of Texas Students Participate In Hackathon

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Charles Schwab Corp. on Saturday is hosting a 24-hour hackathon at its Gracy Farms campus where 70-plus graduate and undergraduate students from the University of Texas at Austin will work to solve real business issues companies face in today's corporate landscape.

The focus of students' work is providing solutions on Global Data, Advisor Services, and Password & Data Authentication. The hackathon's participants were hardly chosen at random as UT-Austin is renowned for housing some of the nation's top business and computer science schools, yielding a key recruiting ground for top employers.

A San Francisco-based bank and brokerage firm, Schwab is among such potential recruiters. With some 2,000 employees in Austin, the company continually recruits heavily from local universities, officials said. Organizers said the hackathon will help introduce top tech and business talent to a possible career at Schwab.

For the uninitiated, a hackathon is an event hosted by a company or organization where software programmers, students, developers, designers and even professors come together for a short period of time (typically 24 hours) to collaborate on a project. Participants work rapidly to build and design an alternative approach to real-world business use cases in an innovative way that keeps in mind the basic requirements of the user.

The gathering at the Schwab campus, 2309 Gracy Farms Lane, is an intense, hours-long affair. Students participating in the hackathon select one of three categories for the project. Organizers provided Patch with the curriculum:

1. GLOBAL DATA TECHNOLOGY USE CASE

SMART CONTRACTS WITH ETHEREUM POA

Problem Statement: Data access at Schwab encompasses Authentication, Authorization, and Identity Management. Today, a central system controls how data access is issued, reviewed, and removed in a timely manner. This system is susceptible to common forms of cyber threats, and common availability constraints. Creating a new data access management system that is served by a distributed ledger will make these records of authority impervious to forgery, and extremely resilient to downtime.

Deliverable: Create an Ethereum distributed application (DAPP) that is a data access management system. The application should behave such that the users of the system are able to perform their data activities, such as requesting and approving data access, using a familiar web-based interface and process workflow.

2. ADVISOR SERVICES TECHNOLOGY USE CASE

KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY - IDENTIFYING AND KEEPING AT RISK CLIENTS

Problem Statement: Advisors lead their client’s investment strategy as a trusted partner - building strong, lasting relationships. There are nevertheless times when internal and external influencers can put the relationship at risk. Planned generational wealth transfer, private investment opportunities, or the passing of a client are just a few examples. How can advisors identify an at-risk relationship early to begin re-building that trust and loyalty before it’s too late?

Deliverable

• Provide risk exposure index for every client and identify the vectors for managing the risk.
• Build additional channels for information that can be feed into the system to identify clients more accurately.
• Build a marketing campaign and customer engagement process that can be targeted to each risk group.
• Identify how customer relationships can be maintained and monitored.

3. SCHWAB R&D USE CASE

HEY, DON'T I KNOW YOU? MOVING BEYOND THE PASSWORD IN AUTHENTICATION.

Problem Statement - Passwords suck. We forget them, reset them endlessly, they get phished, stolen, reused. There must be a better way!
Deliverable - An application or website that allows users to access their personalized content via passwordless authentication.

Judging criteria are based on a weighted points system per category:

• Innovative Solution - 25 points
• Technical Proficiency - 25 points
• User Experience and User Interface - 25 points
• Presentation and Live Demonstration - 25 points

The hackathon schedule highlights include:

• 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.: Rise & shine with Schwab over coffee & breakfast.
• 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.: Final project submission, hacking ends.
• 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.: Brunch & judging begins.
• 1: p.m. to 2 p.m.: Award ceremony, winners present their project.

Get Patch's Daily Newsletters and Real Time Alerts

>>> Image via Shutterstock