Wheaton Student Wins Top Prize at National Hackathon
Hanna Ondrasek ’26, a Computer Science major at Wheaton College (Norton, MA), recently won the Bioharmony Prize at SharkHack, an official Major League Hacking (MLH) event and one of the most competitive student hackathons in the country.
Held over the course of a weekend, SharkHack brought together student innovators from across the United States to design and build technology solutions that address real world challenges. The Bioharmony Prize, SharkHack’s most competitive award category, received the highest number of project submissions focused on the intersection of health, wellness, and technology.
Hanna’s project, titled SkinSnap Baby, is a browser based tool that uses machine learning and webcam input to help identify infant skin conditions, including eczema, meningitis related rashes, and heat rash. Built using React and Google’s Teachable Machine, the tool provides real time feedback while preserving user privacy by running entirely in the browser.
“The idea came from wanting to make health tools more accessible,” Hanna explains. “A lot of parents do not know what a rash means or when to worry. This tool does not replace a doctor, but it helps bridge that initial gap.”
The model was trained on images sourced from verified medical case studies, and dataset augmentation techniques like image rotation were used to improve accuracy. Hanna collaborated with a teammate who assisted with sourcing and organizing the training data.
Hanna’s win at SharkHack reflects not only technical skill but also a commitment to socially impactful computing. As a student deeply engaged in both health tech and ethical technology development, she plans to continue refining the project and exploring its potential clinical applications.
To learn more about the project or try the demo, visit:
https://baby-dermatology.vercel.app