Jonathan J. Sanford, PhD, President | University of Dallas

Two teams from the University of Dallas (UDallas) achieved significant success at the inaugural DFW AI Agent Hackathon, taking first and second place among 17 entries. Participants included students from other universities such as the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) and the University of North Texas (UNT). The event was supported by a group of AI companies, including Intelligage.

Bryan Plaster, co-founder and CEO of Intelligage, praised the students for their creative and applicable solutions. Maria Gutierrez, an MS Business Analytics graduate student set to graduate in 2025, won first place with her AI agent PediMinds. "The inspiration for designing [PediMinds] came from my sister, who is a pediatrician, and my mental health journey," said Gutierrez. She explained that PediMinds uses the PHQ-9 questionnaire to screen young children for depression.

The second-place team consisted of undergraduate Computer Science students Ryan Rearden BS '26, Brandon Saguil BS ‘26, Clement-Andi Edet BS ‘25, and Kenneth Eze BS ‘25. They developed an AI travel agent designed to facilitate travel planning through natural conversation. "Our AI agent helps users discover their ideal destinations through natural conversation," noted Saguil.

Rearden emphasized their motivation: "We felt that it was important to choose something we would be motivated to use ourselves." The team's project involved learning new programming languages like React and JavaScript. Eze highlighted how they expanded their knowledge: “We exposed ourselves to many different APIs and frameworks."

The experience offered valuable lessons in full-stack development and teamwork. Saguil stated: “Each team member owned a specific component of the application.” Gutierrez reflected on balancing technical accuracy with empathy in healthcare-related AI systems: "It showed me that AI can be both powerful and compassionate."

Looking ahead, UDallas announced a new Master of Science program in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence starting in Fall 2025.