A free, student-run hackathon is coming to Long Island, and organizers want high schoolers from New York City to participate.
TeenHacks LI is hosting a day-long hackathon at Hofstra University on Sunday, January 21st. To join, you only have to register via their Google form before January 7 and then be ready to attend the event with your own laptop and devices in tow. The hackathon can only accept 110 participants.
“Hacking is basically where all the registrants collaborate in teams of about two to four and they basically just code: create and brainstorm ideas that they would want to implement into projects that have real world effects,” explains Ray Kong, TeenHacks LI’s press coordinator.
The hackathon will start at 9 a.m. and end at 6 p.m. During that time, hackers will be in teams, thinking about ways to use programs to creatively resolve the problem posed by the days’ theme. Past hackathons have created Chrome extensions that could monitor what data was entering a computer, at another hackathon they created an app for an online merchandise store to support the LGBTQ+ plus community. The event is a full day’s challenge so participants also have breaks where they can attend workshops, listen to professional speakers, be served a free lunch, free snacks, free t-shirts and swag—all while talking through their ideas.
The TeenHacks LI hackathon will be a chance for teens who are interested in broadening their understanding of software designs to join with others and think about ways computer programming can help improve a situation. The event is ideal for young kids who are new or testing out their knowledge of coding.
Organizers say they want their hackathon to foster a safe community for hacking and to have few barriers to entry: they want participants to be okay with reaching and stepping out of their comfort zone.
“Normally, it’s tough. But in a regular hackathon you would have to have a pre-registered team. Normally they’re not going to organize you into teams, you would have to register as a team by yourself. So, if you don’t really have any experience, it’s kind of hard to gather a bunch of people who don’t really know anything about coding and then be successful in that,” Kong said.
“With us, whether you have a team or whether you’re registering individually, we have a space for you. And that, I think, really allows as many people as possible to be open to enjoying a new experience, like a hackathon.”
Hacking originally had negative connotations: it conjured up the image of nefarious computer wizards trying to find a way into peoples’ computer networks so that they can steal vital information.
TeenHacks LI creators, who have been organizing hackathons since 2018, say they want to help redefine what it means to be a hacker. “Normally you have this sort of negative connotation with hacking,” Kong told the AmNews. “But with us, being able to create life-changing products and life-changing applications, these students will come away with this sort of problem-solving collaboration and new ways of thinking that you wouldn’t normally get in a classroom.
“You’re exposed to people you’ve never met before and it’s sort of this think tank of ideas where everyone is contributing toward a common cause––and that is, making something beautiful. So, you’re able to learn from the workshops that we provide and then build something and then share it out at the end. You basically go throughout the entire production process and maybe some of these students will come away and become future entrepreneurs that will be thriving in our world.”
For more information about the hackathon, visit the TeenHacks LI website at www.teenhacksli.com.