Winning Solutions and Scenes from the 2025 City Hackathon
Civic Data and Innovation
On November 7-9, 2025, the City of Memphis, Innovate Memphis, and a steering committee of 8 other local tech talent and entrepreneurship organizations hosted their third Hackathon, powered by Ting Internet. The City Hackathon is a 36-hour “sprint” event where volunteers lend their tech and creativity skills to develop solutions to specific problems the City of Memphis is looking for help on. At the 2025 event, 72 hackers formed 20 teams and focused on one of three challenge areas the City has asked for new innovative ideas on: 1) Predictive analytics and reporting tools to manage blight; 2) User-friendly navigation tools for the 211 community resource directory; and 3) Streamlined processes and tools to strengthen local business partnerships with the City.
We are working with the City on a more detailed post-event webpage with all team artifacts, photos, and video of their final presentations, but here’s a quick rundown of this year’s winning teams and solutions:
GRAND PRIZE WINNER: Bit by Bit
Team: Bit by Bit (Khalid Lopez, Jesse Zheng)
Solution: Automating blight reporting and analytics with computer vision models to improve efficiency.
Artifacts: 1) Presentation Deck; 2) Website Demo; 3) Dashcam Vision Model Demo
CHALLENGE 1 WINNER: Pixelz
Team: Pixelz (Nima Aflaki, Karti Bomb, Jack Seigerman)
Solution: Predicting blight using an algorithm with historical data and map visualizations
Artifacts: Live App
CHALLENGE 2 WINNER: Lorem Ipsum Generator
Team: Lorem Ipsum Generator (Jason Choi, Ara Hanissian, Aaron Kim, Kennedi Stewart)
Solution: A guided search app for 211 users to create personal profiles, receive tailored recommendations for services, and upvote/bookmark preferred services & organizations
Artifacts: Presentation Deck
CHALLENGE 3 WINNER: Xtra-M
Team: Xtra-M (Adrian Ibarra, David McKinney, Siddhi Patwari, Juan Perdomo, Edgar Perez, Chinmay Upadhye)
Solution: A web and mobile application that aggregates schedules and business opportunities for service vendors and organizers to schedule, plan and staff local events.
Artifacts: Presentation Deck
CHALLENGE 3 RUNNER UP: Memphis Better Business Qualifier (BBQ)
Team: Memphis BBQ (Tremaine McKinley)
Solution: Using Large Language Models (LLMs) to draw out summaries and action items from RFPs/RFQs to make it easier for businesses to apply for City opportunities
Artifacts: 1) Presentation Deck; 2) Live App
BEST USE OF ELEVENLABS AI: Civic Bloom
Team: Civic Bloom (Aaron Chakraborty, Adam Featherston, Jennifer Featherston, Tasleem Shaik)
Solution: A website prototype that combines data and mapping with blight reporting tools and links to civic resources to keep neighborhoods clean in a centralized hub
Artifacts: 1) Presentation Deck; 2) Live App
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