West Hills College Coalinga student wins big in agricultural app competition

A West Hills College Coalinga freshman and his team won first place at an agricultural competition called Apps for Ag Hackathon, hosted by the University of California, Davis.

As part of the winning team, Alejandro Avalos helped develop “Ag for Hire,” an app that helps connect agricultural workers and farmers and provides a space for workers to find jobs and farmers to find workers, what Avalos calls “an agricultural version of Uber.”

Avalos competed at the Food, Ag and Health Solution Summit in the Hackathon on Dec. 2 and 3, where he and his team won an April trip to the Thought for Food Global Summit in Zurich, Switzerland, $5,000 and complimentary start-up incorporation services for their app.

The hackathon is the second of its kind in the state, following a competition held at West Hills College Coalinga earlier this year. The winning team at that event featured West Hills staff member Joy Cowden.

This story was originally published December 17, 2015 at 10:52 PM with the headline "West Hills College Coalinga student wins big in agricultural app competition."