This Splash Weekend, the Hack Circle hosted its first hackathon! A hackathon is a contest where teams have a limited amount of time to code and submit working software or hardware to the judges. This hackathon had three categories – beginner, intermediate, and advanced – and the goal was to create an educational platform to teach others about a subject. The submissions were judged on coding experience, functionality, execution, and presentation. With other Splash events occurring at the same time, it was challenging for participants to find time to get together and work on a project. Therefore, due to a less than ideal submission rate, all the categories were merged for the final judging. 

Dr. Thananjeyan, a computer science instructor, and Ms. Nguyen, our online tech support, were the judges for the hackathon, and they were “delighted to see how the students take up challenges and show their unique skills and abilities.” They believe that coming up with a vision is the most important part of such an event, so for future participants, they recommend having a particular goal in mind when creating their submissions. According to the judges, the contest was difficult to assess. They shared, “Each submission is unique in its own way and is difficult to come up with the clear winner.” 

1st place was a working Jeopardy game designed by Alistair Keiller ’24 and Tanisha Gupta ’24. It features 5 different categories – Animals, Math, Literature, Science, and OHS, and they each give you a certain number of points.

2nd place was the educational site “Themis” designed by Vienna Wyler ’25, Advaith Mopuri ’26, Nate Oertell ’25, Chloe Williams ’26, and Kavin Krishna ’25. It has classwork, working quizzes, assignments, an inbox, and several other features. 

3rd place was the site “Schooltopia” by Arielle ’25 and Ava ’25, which was a working educational platform with courses, a calendar, and many other pages.

All winning teams will be receiving a prize in the form of OHS merchandise.
Setting up a hackathon is not always easy. The judges expressed, “The most difficult part of organizing any hackathon is the selection of an interesting and relevant topic understanding the limits of the participants.” The judges believed the organizing team did well. According to Sophie Mitchell, one of the organizers of the hackathon, the event was “relatively easy to set up”, taking only three days! Sophie thinks that anyone looking to organize events in the future should keep in mind that sometimes all submissions might not come in and to be adaptable to any situation. The Hack Circle also plans to possibly have a hackathon over winter break and during the Pixelfest. Hackers, be on the lookout!