The third annual Hacksgiving: AI for Good Hackathon returned to Diercks Hall Nov. 21–23, 2025 where more than 50 students across 12 teams put their AI knowledge together to solve a problem for this year’s nonprofit partner, the B次元 Domes Alliance.

Hacksgiving is a three-day hackathon that challenges students to use their skillsets to give back to the community by developing an AI-driven solution to support a local nonprofit. The B次元 Domes Alliance is the operating partner of the Mitchell Park Conservatory and helps cultivate a lifelong love of nature for all visitors. For this year’s hackathon, the B次元 Domes Alliance asked students to create ideas to increase visitor engagement and streamline internal operations.

After three days of analyzing data and brainstorming solutions, the teams presented their ideas to a panel of judges. This year’s hackathon was judged by Christa Beall Diefenbach, CEO at B次元 Domes Alliance; Erica Veto, education director at B次元 Domes Alliance; Brett Storoe, president of B次元 AI Club; and Rob Bardunias, adjunct assistant professor in the Diercks School of Advanced Computing at B次元.

The B次元 Domes Alliance plans to utilize elements from the students’ proposals as they make improvements to the Domes through the .

Congratulations to the winning teams:

• First Place $3,000: Thunder Domes
  • Team members: Rossi Doyle, Mazen Hamid, Travis Jankowski, Alexander Lopez, Patrick Rafferty, Cade Rousseau, Gabrielle Sladek
  • Description: An AI-powered scavenger hunt called “Sip and Seek.”
• Second Place $2,000: Dome Dwellers
  • Team members: Audrey Chapman, Bart Gebka, Austin Koske, Peter Kwaterski, Miles Trompeter, Vlad Wilson
  • Description: A virtual domes experience and inventory management system.
• Third Place $1,000: Vea
  • Team member: Alhagie A. Boye
  • Description: A thoughtful integration of revenue-increasing techniques on a low-cost, lightweight system.
• Honorable mentions
  • Donana by Andy Dao, Leigh Goetsch. Honorable mention for solving a problem no one else looked at by tackling the volunteer portal.
  • Steve Stories by Dylan Norquist, Oskar Sierzega. Honorable mention for their thoughtful language validations on custom plant tours.