Hackathon Draws Largest Crowd Ever in Return to In-Person

Participants in the hackathon race against the clock to finish their research and competitive analysis. Photo: Michael Onysko

By MICHAEL ONYSKO, CIARA VERNEIGE, and MIR MAHMOOD

The 4th Annual Wendy Menard Memorial Hackathon was in full swing December 11, with the largest turnout in the event’s history as it returned to in-person competition.

Coders were tasked with creating an app centered on digital citizenship and community building. Students collaborated with others they had never met before with the common goal of completing the project and, hopefully, representing the school in the next stage of the competition.

A two-year streak of all-girl teams winning first place was broken when seniors Arhaam Hossain, Ifaz Howlader, Jonathan Reyes, and Adrian Tam took the gold with their idea called The H.I.V.E. 

“I feel surprised that our team won, but I also feel great knowing that our win was well deserved,” said Howlader.

H.I.V.E stands for High School Initiative for Volunteering Experience, Howlader explained. The app helps New York City students find volunteering opportunities that match their interests.

Ms. Janet Gillespie, one of the judges for the Hackathon, said, “The H.I.V.E. stood out amongst competitors for their unique project idea, thorough presentation, and creation of an initial prototype to demonstrate how they envisioned their service working.”

Second place went to juniors Nancy Chen, Aaron Xu, and Angel Wu for “Say No.” Third place went to seniors Sharjeel Muhammad, Mason Zeng, Adan Piracha, Saad Tasnim, and Danny Zhou for “Social Media Addiction in Teens.”

Though some participants had prior coding experience in camps or school classes, the majority were new to the coding world.

“Hackathons don’t require any experience,” said Mr. Samuel Keener, one of the hosts. “But we hope that it opens up opportunities for others to dive deeper into coding.”

Ms. Gillespie added, “We want the Hackathon to be an event that anyone can join, and we hope that students leave having learned something new and having stepped out of their comfort zones.”

Participants from all grades were tasked with solving issues in the categories of civic participation of community building. In order to develop a solution, teams used Google Docs and Google Slides and worked on a shared file.

The idea is “to simulate the real hackathons tech companies host and allow students to think creatively and open them up to the real world,” said Mr. Keener.

The day began with free snacks and drinks before everyone moved to the computer lab to brainstorm. One of the challenges that students faced was differentiating their ideas from similar apps that already exist.

Teams first investigated a hypothesis for five minutes, then they worked on a competitive analysis about the chosen issue for 60 minutes, where they researched products similar to theirs and identified their competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. Finally, they were given 45 minutes to come up with a solution and prepare a proper presentation.

Seniors Mick Gao, Kam Yiu, Samuel Lai, and Demetrius Hosang’s group worked on a couple ideas: First, a digital ID app to prevent cyberbullying by removing online anonymity. Second, an app that could translate hand signs to speech to help people communicate with the deaf. 

This year the Hackathon had 79 registered participants, the most ever, resulting in a greater number of projects that had to be evaluated and a delay in deciding the winners.

Over the next two months, The H.I.V.E. will create a prototype for their app and hold a virtual meeting with a subject matter expert. Be sure to cheer them on as they compete in the Hack League finals during the first week of April.