FOUR students of the De La Salle University bested other students from around the world in the Innovation at Scale category of the Arizona State University-Devex World Hackathon.

Derique Casio, Sephi Licilcan, Aim Solomon and Ritch Traballo were recognized for the app they developed called “Appear.ed: It Always Takes Two to Hi-five” which inclusively and sustainably promotes quality education by functioning as an all-around education assistant for learning and mental health needs.

The students were mentored by Norby Salonga and Maria Rapada.

More than 40 universities across six continents participated in ASU-Devex Student Hackathon.

Competing teams worked on solutions to five real-world development challenges aligned with United Nations Sustainable Development goals.

The five challenge categories were Business Transforming Development, Communicating for Impact, Data Revolution, Innovation at Scale and Development Finance.

The judges were a group of development experts from the six participating continents.

Meanwhile, two students of DLSU’s Debate Society also bagged awards at the Trinity IV, a premiere debating competition in Ireland held on January 30 to 31, 2020.

Hans Wong and Joshua Dita broke into the English as a Second Language Grand Finals of the tournament.

Wong bagged the 2nd Best ESL Speaker award, while Dita was adjudged the fourth best ESL speaker.