150 Students Solve Real World Problems at Hackathon
Bishop Ireton’s Second Annual Hackathon (Hack BI II) was held this past weekend, November 3-4.
Participants spent over 24 hours learning about coding, programming and more during this student-led event, which required over 700 man hours to plan and organize. Over 150 students, from 22 high schools, 17 middle schools, and three secondary schools, created projects ranging from games to solutions of real-world problems.
After being welcomed by General Cartwright (USMC, Retired), all of the participants were given the opportunity to attend workshops led by high schoolers that taught languages and skills such as Python, Java, and Android Studio. Additional workshops, hosted by mentors from Decipher Technology Studios, included Functional JavaScript, Go, Jupiter and KhanAcademy, and How to Read Difficult Papers.
Reflecting back on this workshop, HackBI II Director Patrick Riley remarked, “This event has given me the opportunity to give back to the community that has fostered my growth and development over my four years of high school. The Computer Science Department at Bishop Ireton provided me the opportunity to explore my interests and creativity in ways I could not before. I am grateful to have been able to afford that opportunity to others.”
After attending these workshops, participants spent the rest of the day and night creating their projects. It was not all work, though, as students had time for coding competitions, cup stacking contests, and even virtual reality gaming as a part of the evening activities.
In the morning, teams finalized their projects, finalized their projects and practiced their presentations. Four teams of judges comprised of mentors from industry leaders, teachers, Bishop Ireton alumni, and fellow students made the rounds listening to each team’s presentation about their projects. When presentations finished and while the judges deliberated, the sleep-deprived hackers funneled into the auditorium where they got to hear from Vince Bridgeman, Vice President of Redhorse Corporation.
The awards went to six teams:
- Best Overall Hack: Gautom Das and Alex Kreidler (they won the grand prize, which was an internship with Decipher Technology Studios)
- Model Bench Project: This app allows for users to create different problems, add their own dataset, and allow for others to contribute to their initial problem with their architectures.
- Solution to a Real World Problem: Saige Gootman, Layla Behbehani, Zara Hall, and Zachary Kent
- Program that uses Alexa in order to log and track shower water consumption per week.
- Best Beginner: Lucy Levenson and Kaleb Gezahegn
- An automated rover that can detect oil contamination in sand and rank the severity compared to other areas
- Best use of Theme: John Mutersbaugh and Jules Le Menestrel
- A Neural Network built from the ground up in java to predict the location and density of plastic in the ocean
- Best use of Hardware: Sanjana Meduri and Sarah Gu
- BrainScan allows those who are speech impaired to have a voice by converting brain waves into audible speech.
- Best Website: Ajith Kemisetti
- A strategic way to place and monitor Emergency Medical Centers.
- Best App: Michael Stone, Joseph Zimmerman, Christopher Alex and Alexander Delaney
- A tutoring/social media app used for students who have had a previous teacher and wish to tutor or students who are struggling with specific classes.
Our sponsor Major League Hacking (MLH) also gave away three prizes, too.
- MLH: Google Cloud Platform: Megan Dass and Monica Saraf
- Custom chat-bot, CyBuy
- MLH: Best use of Here.com: Alec S
- Maritime Supply Chain Management
- MLH: Best Domain Registered with Domain.com: Calvin Paradise, Ana Roldan, Sarah Fleming and Natalie Ramirez
- A website that educates people about ocean pollution and acidification.
Overall, the event was a great success with a 50% increase in participation from the first hackathon. The entire Hack BI team is looking forward to creating a bigger and better event next year!
Article written by Will Mueller '20
Photos taken by Gaby Garcia '20
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