A view of the world from the fourth floor of Parmly Hall
The Computer Science Department celebrated Halloween in style at Professor Matthews’ home on Thursday, October 29. Professor Matthews had awesome decorations and treats — it was an evening of fun, food and good company.
Check out these party pics ! 🎃👻🍬
On September 26 and 27, William & Mary hosted &hacks XII, a 24-hour event where students team up to build software projects from scratch. Bringing together over 270 students from seven universities, this year’s event challenged participants to create new technologies based on the theme of “Imagination.”
Students spent the fast-paced weekend creating apps and tech solutions for real-world challenges while building AI and coding skills through hands-on workshops.
Washington and Lee students brought home multiple awards!
DiatoMeter (Aditya Thakur ’30, Menilik Deneke ’28, and Damir Syrlybayev ’29) earned Gold in the Nano Bio Lab track as a tool that helps analyze microscopic biological samples more quickly and accurately.
Lingo (Paula Yaniz Macia ’28, Anh Nhu’28, Danilo Sindric ’29, and Devin Upadhyay ’29) earned Silver and the Best Use of ElevenLabs award for building an AI-powered language-learning tool designed for ESL learners to master spoken English pronunciation and linguistics.
Psst (listed on Devpost as Accountability App), developed by Connor Sweeney ’27, earned Silver for developing an AI accountability app that helps users stay on track with goals and habits.
A big congratulations to all the W&L students on their impressive success at the hackathon!
On Tuesday, May 5, students and faculty from the Computer Science Department gathered outside for the annual lunchtime picnic—a breezy, sunny break from the usual routine.
Yard games were a big draw, with giant Jenga, interactive Tetris, and a Coney Island toss game!
The picnic was a chance to relax, catch up, and spend time together outside of class, making it another fun and relaxing department tradition.
The Computer Science Department’s annual Halloween Party took place on October 30, 2025, at Professor Matthews’ house—and it was a great success! Students, faculty, and friends enjoyed an evening of costumes, good food, and plenty of laughs.
Here are a few photos from the night—thanks to everyone who joined and helped make it a memorable event!
The 2024 CS Halloween Party was held on October 29 @ Professor Matthews’ house. Check out these party pics!
The first ever W&L SOLVE Hackathon was held in the IQ Center, May 12-13, 2024.
A hackathon is an event where individuals or teams come together to collaboratively work on solving problems or creating innovative projects within a limited time frame. The SOLVE 2024 event was an interdisciplinary student-focused gathering for any undergraduate student from W&L.
A grand prize of $1,000 was awarded to three separate teams judged to have created the best products or for embodying the spirit of the competition. Danish Bokhari ’24, Lakpa Sherpa ’25 and Mohamed Soliman ’27, who created EcoEats, a food app designed to revolutionize the way we eat and live sustainably, were one of the three winning teams.
Congratulations Danish, Lakpa and Mohamed!
Click here to read the full Columns article:
https://columns.wlu.edu/wl-holds-inaugural-solve-2024-hackathon-event-on-campus/
Students in Professor Matthews CSCI 319 Video Game Design class showcased their final games at the end of winter term.
Game Demo Day took place on Saturday, April 13 from 10:30am – 12:30pm in the Science Center Great Hall.
It was a great turnout as lots of people came and played video games!
On November 2 , the Computer Science Department held its first ever Capture the Flag event.
Capture the Flag (CtF) in computer security is an exercise in which participants attempt to find text strings, called “flags”, which are secretly hidden in purposefully-vulnerable programs or websites.
From unraveling cryptic codes to identifying vulnerabilities in simulated systems, student teams showcased their skills in ethical hacking and digital defense. CS’s CtF served to foster a dynamic cybersecurity community on campus.
The success of this initial session set the stage for future exciting and intellectually stimulating CtF competitions!
The Computer Science Dept. Halloween party took place on Nov. 7. The party, held at Professor Matthews’ house, was fun and festive!
Check out these party pics!
Lakpa and Ignas came in second for best education hack at Hoo Hacks 2023 with their EsyLearn project.
During the hackathon, Lakpa and Ignas were inspired to produce a personal learning assistant that would accept and adjust to the learning needs of its user.
EsyLearn communicates with users via a web interface where the users can easily speak and get responses back, just like talking to another human being. Through natural language processing, it provides responses both in text and audio for better understanding. Within 24 hours, Lakpa and Ignas essentially created a virtual assistant that is as smart as Jarvis in the Iron Man Movies.
Congratulations, Lakpa and Ignas!
You can learn more in the W&L feature story and in the Hook Hacks project gallery.