Nearly 50 percent of the workforce at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City is in information technology. The Bank hosts an annual Code-A-Thon competition between teams of college students to support education and develop a talent pipeline in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

In the 2018 Code-A-Thon, the “Mules 2” team from the University of Central Missouri (UCM) received the first-place award. It was the second consecutive Code-A-Thon championship for a UCM team.

The 2018 second-place award went to team “Thunderwolves” from Colorado State University-Pueblo. Another team from UCM, “Mules 1,” was third. In addition, “Team Lion” from Langston University in Oklahoma received the University Champion Award, presented to the school with the most committed and engaged faculty in the competition.

Sixteen teams from universities across the Federal Reserve’s Tenth District competed to develop software solutions to address a real-life problem. The winning solution from Mules 2 was “Visual Dispatcher,” an application that provides a comprehensive dashboard to address multiple flight dispatcher issues.

Participation in Code-A-Thon has tripled since the event began in 2015. Several Kansas City Fed employees participated in Code-A-Thon as students.

“This year, we were thrilled to see an overall increase in participation again, an extended geographic footprint in teams and the highest percentage of female team members, at 24 percent,” said Brian Faros, Kansas City Fed vice president and chief information officer. “We look forward to building on this momentum and crafting a flagship event for university students throughout the region.”

Learn about Federal Reserve Bank careers in technology