Computer science majors Chami Senarath (left) and Haakon Anderson are
the winners of the 2021 Butterfield Cup at Mines.
A
pair of South Dakota Mines students
have won the eighth annual Butterfield Cup. The competition is part of the
university’s CSC 340 software engineering course and has a history of turning
student ideas into start-up companies. This year’s contest challenged students
to build better software for connecting employers with college students.
The 2021 Butterfield Cup winners, computer science majors
Haakon Anderson and Chami Senarath, built the program Pipeline for Recruiters
(PFR), which allows employers to create
profiles and track potential hires to compare and contrast strengths of various
applicants with their internal team.
“It’s a college-to-corporate website that helps
recruiters build the pipeline for potential new hires,” says Senarath. “We got
to learn a lot about the back-end development and databases and had fun putting
our own ideas and spin on the front-end,” Anderson adds.
The Butterfield Cup is an annual competition created
by local entrepreneurs to recognize the best mobile app or software produced by
a team of Mines students in one semester. Previous winners have gone on to
become finalists in the Governor’s
Giant Vision Competition.
Senarath and Anderson say they may turn the
experience and knowledge gained in this class into a separate business idea
they have for the next Mines CEO
Business Plan Competition, the Governor’s Giant Vision Awards and other
contests. “Using the skills and knowledge we have gained here we think we have
a strong plan for a potential business,” says Senarath.