Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria hosted its fifth annual hackathon, HackBI. The student-run event focuses on learning new computer science skills at workshops, collaborating in teams and competing.
Students spent hundreds of hours preparing for this event. In spite of the difficulties from the ongoing pandemic, dozens of students were able to participate in person. Although the overnight portion of the hackathon was canceled, students from all over the area had enough time to formulate their project ideas and bring their visions to life alongside their teammates.
The hackathon offered a number of student-led workshops on new skills that could help them in their projects. Workshops included topics such as Illustrator, Photoshop, Java, Python and robotics.
There were several opportunities to win prizes. The winner of the Best Overall project category won a summer internship at Decipher Technology Studios in Alexandria.
Alongside the high school portion, HackBI hosted a shorter event for middle school students. This 12-hour hackathon enabled students to work with other middle schoolers who have a love for computer science. Students had the opportunity to visit workshops and equip themselves with new skills.
Because of the pandemic, many high school events have been canceled or held online. HackBI V was able to put on a safe, in-person event for everyone. This fun event provided opportunities for students to get together and collaborate on projects outside of the classroom.
If you ask the team members how important HackBI is to them, they would respond “very important.” Even though there were plenty of stressful nights, numerous tasks and time spent figuring out how to quickly adjust to sudden changes, the team benefited from putting on the hackathon. Not only is there the short-term gratification of organizing such a multi-faceted event, but also HackBI allows everyone on the team to take the experience they gained and the leadership skills they developed into their future endeavors.
