College of Staten Island Computer Science major Xia Jie Ou ’28 is celebrating a standout semester of innovation, earning top recognition at two recent competitive student hackathons: HackNYU at New York University and Hack Knight at Queens College. Xia Jie and his teammates took home first place in the Sustainability Track category at HackNYU and won the “Most Popular Vote” award at Hack Knight, an impressive feat for a first-year hackathon participant.
Hackathons, Xia Jie explained, offer students the chance to collaborate intensively over several days to build original tech solutions that address real-world challenges. Hack Knight ran for three days while HackNYU spanned two, and participants often worked overnight to bring their projects to life.
“Both hackathons were intended for teamwork,” he noted. “You collaborate with others, stay overnight if needed, present to judges, and submit a demo video. Each track has its own winner.”
At Hack Knight, Xia Jie worked with teammate Georgy Bochnev to create Skinalyze, a user-friendly Web app designed to help individuals assess their skin health. The tool allows users to upload a photo or use a live camera feed to receive an AI-generated analysis of skin conditions, along with general care suggestions. “Skinalyze helps users quickly understand their skin condition,” Xia Jie said. “The goal was to create something simple that could genuinely help people.”
For HackNYU, where Xia Jie and Georgy paired with teammates Arjun Parasuram Prasad and Arnav Sharma, the team shifted focus to environmental sustainability with EcoScan, a mobile app that scans clothing tags and instantly produces an AI-driven eco-impact score. By giving users insight into the environmental footprint of their fashion choices, the team hopes to encourage more sustainable consumer behavior. “EcoScan was created to help people make environmentally conscious decisions,” Xia Jie said. “Both apps were built with the idea of helping people and the Earth.”
The HackNYU judges agreed, awarding Xia Jie’s team 1st Place in the Sustainability Track, a main competition category. Each winning team member received a LEGO bonsai tree set as a prize. Hack Knight’s “Most Popular Vote” distinction recognized Skinalyze as a crowd favorite among peer participants.
Beyond the awards, Xia Jie said the experience of working alongside creative, driven peers was its own reward. “I entered these events because I wanted to meet like-minded people and create innovative projects that can have an impact,” he shared. “Sustainability and healthcare emerged as our focus areas because we want to help people and have a net positive impact,” he explained.
Xia Jie credits the Computer Science program and the advisement he has received at CSI for giving him the confidence to explore his talents further. “The Modern Web Development course with Professor Kostandy heavily features project-based learning. This approach is what gave me the confidence to participate in these hackathons,” he explained. “I was encouraged by multiple students and received career advisement within the department that made me aware of opportunities outside of school. I took the initiative, and the confidence gained from my CSI coursework and the support of the community led to these outcomes.”
As he continues his studies at CSI, Xia Jie hopes to keep refining his hackathon projects and pursuing new ideas that connect technology with social good. “These experiences motivate me,” he said. “I want to keep building things that matter.”
