Hackathon Hits Highest Turnout Yet in Seventh Year

“Botley’s Little Crue” took home the win. *Photo: Nicole Hird*

By NINA CHEN and WINNIE WANG

with contributions from Angela Zou and Yan Chen

Students from all grade levels gathered with anticipation in the library for the 7th Annual Wendy Menard Memorial Hackathon on Saturday December 14. With about 130 participants, it was officially Midwood’s biggest Hackathon yet.

A variety of breakfast foods such as bagels, muffins, croissants, and fruit were available from 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., and merch was given out: yellow rubber ducks, blue fidget spinners, white tote bags, and t-shirts, all with this year’s logo on them. After a brief introduction by math teacher Ms. SueAnn Seccafico, the students dispersed to their designated classrooms in the first floor annex.

This year’s theme was “Looking Back, Leaping Forward,” on the evolution of technological inventions. Students sat at tables in groups of five max. Their task was to develop a prototype that has evolved throughout history and can benefit human society.

The process was broken down into six timed steps: brainstorming, research and planning, developing a prototype, creating presentations, delivering presentations, and a deliberation by the judges.

The groups had three hours to complete all their tasks, working with paper, clay, and other materials to make their prototypes before using Chromebooks or their own devices to design slides.

After hours of collaboration, the winning team was Botley’s Little Crüe, led by seniors Anthony Rodriguez, Sabrine Uddin, Zachary Ishibashi, Meher Chowdhury, and Jocelyn Yee.

“My group created an educational AI model that comes in the form of a hologram,” said Yee. “It does more than help students with assignments, essentially acting as a 24/7 support system, mentor, guidance counselor, and best friend.”

The prototype comes with many additional benefits, such as a keyboard, headphones, and multiple languages so that non-native English speakers could also access it. The model is envisioned for K-12 students and it is customizable.

“It’s kind of like ChatGPT, except our model asks questions more than it gives answers,” Yee said.

The app also offers support for students with impairments such as blindness and deafness. “It would help the community by being more inclusive of those who may not be the same,” Ishibashi said.

Botley’s Little Crüe will be receiving prizes and the chance to support Midwood’s 2nd Annual Middle School Invitational Hackathon as student experts in May 2025.

“There were definitely times we felt rushed during the process,” Yee said. “However, working together with everyone in my group made the process easier and brought us closer together as a team.”

Participants who didn’t win still had a great time. “This is my first time coming to Hackathon,” said Edison Wang ‘26. “It was fun, and there was free food and friendly teachers.”

The event coordinators had to adapt to accommodate the record-setting attendance.

“This was our first year that we moved to the annex because we had such a large number of students,” said Ms. Seccafico.

“We met once a week with our fellow teachers,” she said. “We each have a role. Mine is to create the rubric. We met on Zoom and discussed how we were going to come up with everything.”

The Hackathon “is a way to get students with multiple levels of experience in coding to engage in team work to create solutions to real life situations,” said Ms. Patricia Lazo, the Math Department’s assistant principal.

“Hackathon really showed me teamwork,” said Ishibashi. “As well as seeing how relying on one another could truly benefit the persistence to a greater goal.”

Ms. Nicole Hird, a math teacher, said the ideas presented exceeded her expectations. “I was definitely impressed with the level of intellect and innovation and creativity,” she said.

As the Hackathon came to an end, teachers and students were already looking forward to next year’s contest.

“I’m so happy that we’re growing and that people are interested in it,” said Ms. Seccafico. “I hope to keep doing this in the future.”