Student Spotlight: Jenny Wu, Computer Science ALIGN, wins Facebook Seattle Student Hackathon
When breaking into the competitive tech industry, you can’t be afraid to dive in head first. That’s what motivated Jenny Wu, a Computer Science ALIGN graduate student, to attend the Facebook Seattle: Student Hackathon on October 16.
For Wu, the dive scored a perfect 10, as her team ending up winning the challenge earning a finalist spot in the Facebook Global Hackathon this week in San Francisco.
“Coming from business school, I have a habit of participating in a lot of events without hesitating,” Wu explained. “I didn’t know anybody going in, but I went to explore opportunities and meet some really awesome and ambitious people.”
Jenny Wu, Computer Science ALIGN, shows her application from the Facebook Student Hackathon: Hospital Finder.
With a Master’s in Accounting from Baruch College and experience working in Wall Street investment banking, Wu moved to Seattle to pursue an entrepreneurial mission.
“My dream is always to run my own business one day, ” Wu said. “The business background I already have, I realized I needed the technical skills.”
There are limited-options to obtain a Computer Science graduate degree, if you don’t have a background in the field, Wu said, but her search lead to Northeastern University-Seattle’s ALIGN program, which offered a straightforward approach to achieving her degree goals.
Wu saw Facebook Seattle’s Hackathon as a way to work with fellow newcomers and experienced professionals to gain insight into the tech industry in Seattle. The all-night session ended up turning into a much larger undertaking than she could have predicted.
Wu proposed an idea drawn from her recent experience dealing with out-of-network healthcare when moving from New York to Seattle. When in a new place, it’s difficult through traditional searches to identify the difference between a hospital emergency room or a flat-rate clinic, Wu said, and depending where you choose to go can have large consequences in cost and services available. She wanted to create a way to solve this problem.
She wrote the idea on a whiteboard at the start of the hackathon and waited to see who would want to work on it with her. No one voted for the concept, but passionate about the potential she advocated attendees and found two University of Washington students to join the team.
15 hours later they presented a prototype for a mobile application: Hospital Finder, a hospital search and review system that focuses on affordability and quality. The application uses GPS to locate nearby healthcare centers and evaluate available services, cost considerations and reviews to help decide the right place to make an appointment.
“We had very strong competitors and my other teammates felt it was impossible for us to win,” Wu said. “But we won. I was confident about the idea, because I know the impact it has for society.”
In the month, since winning the hackathon Wu has worked to grow their team of 3 into a team of 11, including three fellow Northeastern University-Seattle students working on the development team.
“I’m very glad I made this transition from Wall Street to Seattle. In business, we work with transactions, it’s hard to build something,” Wu said. “Engineers value solving a problem. Here, I’ve gotten to know a lot of smart, talented engineers, who are very passionate about their work. I’m really happy to be working with them and working on something that can really benefit society and save people’s lives.”
While actively working to develop the application and set up meetings with potential investors, Wu and team are also preparing to go to San Francisco this week to compete against more than 20 teams from around the world in Facebook’s Global Hackathon.
“We want to do our best to take this opportunity to really work hard on it, so we can learn by doing it. ” Wu said. “Class is important to learn the technical skills. This will show me what’s in the world outside the classroom.”