George Brown College's Schools of Fashion & Jewellery and Computer Technology are celebrating bringing home four exciting award wins from the recent Fashion Tech Hackathon in Kent State, Ohio.
The Fashion Tech Hackathon is an interdisciplinary event that allows teams of university and college students to learn new skills and create innovative technology that will help define the future of fashion.
Participating students spend 36 hours developing a project of their choice that explores the intersection of fashion and technology, such as creating technology-enhanced garments, building wearable-responsive web applications, or disrupting fashion via retail data innovations. On March 17, 11 students from George Brown attended to compete under the mentorship of faculty mentor Professor Vladimira Steffek.
"This is a great example of the interdisciplinary approach experienced by GBC students studying at the Centre for Arts, Design & Information Technology," said Rosa Fracassa, Acting Chair, School of Fashion & Jewellery. "Our centre really showcases what can come from bringing creativity, production innovation and technology together to address real-world challenges."
Award Winners:
- Utilizing Wearable Technology to Connect Award: Leily Meghrgan Boroumandi, Fashion
- Wear Your Music Maker Award: Sedik Mohamed, Fashion
- Best Accessibility Hack sponsored by Fidelity Award: Jiyoung Jung, Fashion
- Wearable for Social Justice Award: Paul Brason and Sam Subramaniam, IT
"As we prepare our students to thrive in global industries, opportunities like this, to collaborate with other disciplines, hone their skills and compete internationally have never been more important," said David Begg, Associate Vice-President, Global Partnerships and Education.
This is the second international win for the School of Fashion & Jewellery this year- already internationally-ranked and the only Canadian school endorsed by the American Apparel & Footwear Association - after fashion student Hazel Ycasiano won at the annual Fashion Scholarship Fund (FSF) Case Study Challenge in February.
Congratulations to the entire George Brown College Hackathon team on their performance.
