Future-Ready: How Paulus is Supporting the Next Generation of Tech Talent

This past weekend, Paulus had the incredible opportunity to sponsor and attend the Biggest Little Hackathon at the University of Nevada, Reno—an event hosted by the university’s Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) chapter. As a company rooted in precision and problem-solving, we were proud to sponsor the Computer Vision Award and witness firsthand the innovation emerging from the next generation of software engineers.

For those unfamiliar, a hackathon is a high-energy, time-boxed event where teams of developers, designers, and creative thinkers come together to build functional tech solutions—often in just 24 to 48 hours. The UNR hackathon brought together some of the brightest minds in the region, and the results were nothing short of inspiring.

Our very own Jason Paulus and Brocton Nunns attended as representatives and were blown away by the level of technical creativity and execution on display. One of the standout winners was Team PYRA, who didn’t just walk away with the Computer Vision Award—but also earned the People’s Choice Award for their groundbreaking project: an adaptive math game that uses OpenCV to read facial expressions and adjust difficulty levels in real time. The game was developed across multiple platforms, including a fully functional iOS version, showcasing an impressive range of skills from the team.

Another remarkable project featured an AutoML platform that allowed users to build machine learning models through a dynamic, node-based interface. Users could upload a dataset, build their pipeline with intuitive drag-and-drop nodes, and let the platform automatically optimize the model. The creators earned the Machine Learning Award for their innovative approach to democratizing AI.

This event was more than just a competition—it was a celebration of innovation, collaboration, and potential. We’re grateful to the UNR ACM for putting together such a powerful platform for future leaders int ech, and we’re proud to support talent that’s shaping the future.

We can’t wait to see what these brilliant students do next.

‍