A Noblesville High School senior has been given the title of Technology Rookie of the Year.
Noblesville Schools announced April 25 that Zack Baker, 18, received the Rookie of the Year award during TechPoint’s 17th annual Mira Awards, honoring the best of tech in Indiana.
Baker founded PassWhiz, an iOS app he coded himself that eliminates the need for paper hall passes and perfected it as his NHS Innovations Class project.
Baker first successfully pitched the app to Noblesville Schools, and now, the app is used by more than 13,000 students in 10 schools across the nation. The app is the second product Baker has created and sold to paying customers, the first of which was an app he built when he was 14.
In addition to his skills as a young programmer, the judges said they appreciated Baker’s passion for doing good in the community as a knowledgeable tech resource and volunteer.
Following the success of his PassWhiz, Baker founded the NHS Code Club to teach fellow students how to develop and program mobile apps. He and fellow members of the club put their talents to good use with community service programs like outreach programs to Noblesville senior citizens. Through the NHS Innovations Class, Baker has spoken about education and entrepreneurship at Stanford University, at a conference in New York City and co-founded a podcast interviewing tech and education innovators.
TechPoint, the growth initiative for Indiana’s tech ecosystem, honored Indiana’s best companies, entrepreneurs, educators and other leaders for their technology excellence and innovation at the awards April 23.
A total of 17 award winners and seven runners-up were chosen from the 98 companies, organizations and individuals who were selected as nominees this year out of the 168 applications received highlighting achievements during the 2015 calendar year.
