A trio of computer science students from Missouri S&T have earned top honors in several hackathon-style events over the past six months — most recently at the Midwest Blockathon hosted earlier this month by the University of Kansas Blockchain Institute. 
 
“I always enjoy competing in hackathons because I love the entire project creation process,” says Alvin Moy, a junior in computer science from St. Louis. “At hackathons, you are usually given a theme to build a project around. You start with an idea, test different approaches and then end up with a fully working project in just 36 to 48 hours.” 
 
At the Midwest Blockathon, Moy’s teammates from S&T — Sayam Gupta, a sophomore from St. Louis, and Matthew Martin, a sophomore from Ste. Genevieve, Missouri — partnered with Max Chen, a student from Saint Louis University.  
 
The team won first place in a capture-the-flag challenge sponsored by the Sui Foundation, in which participants solved programming problems using blockchain tools, and received the Best Use of ElevenLabs award for how their project incorporated artificial intelligence voice technology. 
 
In this competition, the team developed a platform to help immigrants navigate the legal process by sharing case insights and providing multilingual text-to-speech features. 
 
In November 2025, Moy, Martin and Gupta competed in the Immerse the Bay extended reality hackathon at Stanford University with teammate Jason Lu, a Stanford computer science student. 
 
The students earned an honorable mention in the overall competition for their project, which used biometric data from a specialized headset to create virtual reality simulations for communicating in high-stress situations. They also placed first in two sponsor challenges — one supported by Meta and another by OpenBCI — for their use of those companies’ technologies. 
 
Martin says the team’s success at this competition was especially meaningful to him. 
 
“Coming from a rural area in the Midwest, getting to walk into a hackathon in Silicon Valley and hold my own is really special,” he says. “It shows that talent can come from anywhere, even if resources and exposure aren’t always there, and that we belong in those spaces.” 
 
Also in November, Moy and Gupta joined Chen to compete in the TigerHacks competition hosted by the University of Missouri and left with Best Use of Solana and Best Domain Name honors for a mystery game they developed that allows players to question AI-powered characters and deduce which characters were being truthful.  
 
The month prior, Moy, Martin and Gupta, along with Kevin Tang, a computer science student at Washington University in St. Louis, won first place in the Code Agnostic track at the university’s Hack WashU competition. 
 
Their project combined a productivity timer with a garden-building simulation designed to help users stay focused while reducing stress.  
 
Gupta says he appreciates what his team’s wins mean for Missouri S&T’s visibility on the national stage and that he gets to participate in competitions that sharpen skills he wants to continue developing. 
 
“Every time we place or win at one of these competitions, it helps more people recognize S&T as a serious contender in computer science and that we can really hold our own against anyone,” he says. “Being able to represent the school and shine a positive light on our department is something I take pride in, and I always take away useful experiences and have a fun time at these events.” 
 
To learn more about Missouri S&T’s computer science programs, visit cs.mst.edu. 

About Missouri S&T

Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is a STEM-focused research university of over 7,000 students located in Rolla, Missouri. Part of the four-campus University of Missouri System, Missouri S&T offers over 100 degrees in 40 areas of study and is among the nation’s top public universities for salary impact, according to the Wall Street Journal. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit www.mst.edu.