Nashua Teen Wins Hackathon with 'Twivo'

Jennie Lamere, 17, of Nashua, is gaining national attention after winning the annual TVnext Hack event in Boston. Not only did she win her category, "Best Use of Sync-To-Broadcast," but also won Best In Show beating out professional developers with her contribution, an app she calls Twivo, a TV spoiler blocker for Twitter.

You can watch Jennie explain her app in the accompanying YouTube video of the TVnext event. Her segment is first among the five finalists, and you can fast forward to 3:33 to see her talk about how she devised the app. 

As an avid Twitter user, Jennie explained that she hated seeing spoilers on Twitter while trying to watch her favorite TV shows, so she came up with a code that blocks keywords and prevents spoilers from spoiling your TV viewing.

Judge Marie José Montpetit asked the ladies in the audience to give Jennie a round of applause for being the only lady in the competition. 

Lemere, a student at the all-girls Academy of Notre Dame in Massachusetts was the only female participating in the events.

A hackathon is a coding competition that brings great minds together to innovate new programs with a particular set of parameters. Lamere entered the TVnext Hack event sponsored by ad agency Hill Holliday in partnership with Mashery, which was held in Boston on April 27.  

From the Hill Holiday site, explaining the competition categories:

Hill Holliday's, TVnext℠ Hack, in partnership with Mashery, is a premiere television industry hackathon open to developers who want to affect what's next for TV.

Development teams will each compete within one these 5 categories:

1. Guides - Whether they appear on the primary or second screens, these apps will help TV audiences easily discover and tune-in to shows that they will love.

2. Connected TV - Designed specifically for internet connected TV sets and/or devices, these apps will enhance the user experience within a connected TV platform.

3. Companion Apps - Since more people simultaneously use devices while watching TV , these apps will enhance the personal and/or co-viewing TV viewing experience.

4. TV Everywhere - As TV content continues to become device agnostic, these apps will raise the bar on the ability to watch TV, at will, across screens and platforms.

5. Analytics and Data Visualization - Harvested from TV's social media "backchannel," these apps will surface and visualize new metrics informing valuable measurement insights.