Four Physics and Astronomy graduate students won "Best Space Themed Development Project" at the HackUIowa event Oct. 15-16 at the Iowa Memorial Union. 

Graduate students Jacob Payne, Cole Armstrong, Philip Griffin and Aidan Moore (pictured l to r in banner photo) teamed up for the AstroMech 9 project, which connects people with space by showing where stars and constellations are in the night sky. It uses a natural language Google Assistant interface to the Stellarium database to provide robotic laser pointer identification of targets, automated to enhance planetarium and public observation events.

Physics Alumna Amanda Acevedo with Vedo Systems sponsored the award for the best space-themed project.

UI students formed 38 teams of up to four members at the Hackathon to work on their project (or 'hack'). Projects were open format, which means that you can hack on web, mobile, desktop, or hardware applications. Company mentors were available throughout the event for questions to make sure beginners and experts alike had the help they needed to successfully develop their projects.