Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria hosted its second annual Hackathon in early November. The student-run event gave middle schoolers and high schoolers the opportunity to attend workshops, learn how to code and ultimately create their own unique projects.

“This event has allowed me to give back to the community that has fostered my growth and development over my four years of high school,” said senior Patrick Riley, director of this year’s Hackathon. “Computer science gave me the opportunity to explore my interests and creativity in ways I could not before, and I am grateful to have been able to afford that opportunity to others.”

“I was most surprised by the number of inexperienced programmers who not only attended the event, but stayed the entire time and submitted projects,” said Computer Science Teacher Terri Kelly, who orchestrated the event. “The students flourished in the open-ended environment of choosing their own project and the language they would create it in.”

More than 150 students from 43 different schools had the opportunity to go to workshops on Java, Python, Android Studio, Programming and more.

Gautom Das and Alex Kreidler took home the grand prize, a paid internship with Decipher Technology Studios, with their creation of a custom app that allowed users to create and solve various problems.

Other notable projects included a rover that analyzed oil contamination in beach sand (winner of Best Beginner Hack); a program that utilized Amazon Alexa to reduce and monitor water consumption (winner of Best Solution to a Real World Problem); and an app that converted brain waves into audible speech (winner of Best Use of Hardware).

Find out more

For a complete list of student projects go to hackbi.devpost.com/.