{"id":28401,"date":"2025-11-10T17:54:57","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T17:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/?p=28401"},"modified":"2026-04-16T21:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:25:12","slug":"edible-rice-takes-first-place-in-macathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2025\/11\/edible-rice-takes-first-place-in-macathon\/","title":{"rendered":"Edible Rice takes first place in Macathon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Macathon 2025 once again transformed campus into a hub of rapid innovation on November 7\u20138. For twenty-four hours, students worked through the night\u2014whiteboards filling, laptops glowing, and teams huddling around last-minute prototypes\u2014as they raced to identify real-world problems and build solutions that matter. Teams are paired with alumni judges to fine-tune their ideas. After the twenty-four hours are up, they have seven minutes to present their concept to the judging panel. The three highest scoring teams are rewarded with cash prizes.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Peter Pascale \u201994 kicked off the event with a challenge that set the tone: \u201cFall in love with the problem, not the solution.\u201d With that, teams dove into their work, supported by alumni mentors before stepping onto the stage for their seven-minute pitch (introduced by a drumroll, of course).<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In first place, winning $1,000: Edible Rice <\/i><\/b>(Evvie Bond \u201926, Shelly Bai \u201926, Toby Hibbard \u201927)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edible Rice took first place with \u201cToasty Tubes,\u201d an insulated medical tube designed to prevent feeding tubes from freezing\u2014an everyday issue for the three million people who rely on them. Their design uses insulated wiring wrapped around tubing, offering a practical fix that can be adapted for multiple medical devices.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In second place, winning $750: Jeet\u2019s Jesters <\/i><\/b>(Bruno Guiduli \u201926, Eric Wentz \u201926, Martin Bernsten \u201926, Theo Darci-Maher \u201927, Sanjeet Devidayal \u201926, Ethen Kantu \u201926)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeet\u2019s Jesters placed second with a project focused on improving the way waste facilities sort materials. They built an AI tool that uses a YOLOv8 computer vision model\u2014trained on a little over 600 images\u2014to spot valuable items moving along a conveyor belt and point them out to human sorters. Their goal wasn\u2019t to replace people, but to make their jobs easier. The team also designed the system so it could be added to existing facilities without major costs or long installation times.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In third place winning $500: Salchipapa <\/i><\/b>(William Acosta Lora \u201927, Berni Perez de Nucci \u201928, Karla Martinez \u201927, Patrica Escobar \u201928, Nayla Trigueros \u201928)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salchipapa took third place for addressing bias in pulse oximeters. These devices often overestimate blood oxygen levels in people with high melanin, which can hide signs of hypoxemia. The team created a recalibration model that makes readings more accurate, resulting in a bias improvement of 51 percent for people with darker skin tones. Their work pushes toward making common medical tools more reliable for everyone.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also included in the award lineup is the Dave Mao Keeping It Real Award for representing the spirit of the event\u2014playfulness, joy, and possibility. Team Musasabi (Jill Chung \u201928, Yaoki Kitahara \u201928, Hazel Huang \u201929, Tenzin Bhutia \u201928, Eddie Piao \u201928) took home this prize. A special thank you to Dave\u2019s family for setting up this fund to continue his dedication to Macathon students.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dave Mao Award Winners<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As the event wrapped up, judges encouraged students to keep going. \u201cPlease don\u2019t stop with your ideas\u2014they\u2019re exactly what our world needs right now,\u201d said Vice President of Student Affairs Kathryn Kay Coquemont.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Participating students in Macathon<\/figcaption><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Participating teams have twenty-four hours to develop a solution to a real-world issue.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":28403,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[645,481],"class_list":["post-28401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-life","tag-entrepreneurship-and-innovation","tag-macathon","mediatype-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"article_type":[8],"flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","custom_link_url":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false,"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","post_thumbnail_style":"default","press_downloads":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28401"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29177,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28401\/revisions\/29177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}