For the first time in Pinewood history, the Pinewood Technology Club will be hosting an on-campus Hackathon, PantherHacks, on Dec. 2. 

   “Hackathon is an event where schools, or teams from different schools, come together to code a project,” Tech Club President Catelijne Wessels said. 

   The projects are then evaluated by judges, and individuals or small teams have the opportunity to win prizes. Some hackathons can last up to 48 hours, but the upcoming one will last around 12 hours.

   Each hackathon features a different theme that the participants do not know until the day of the event. The theme is intentionally meant to be vague and open-ended to allow students to be creative. Previous themes for the hackathon have included “global warming,” where a team developed a recycling app, and “upside down,” where another team programmed a video game that was literally upside down.

   “Every time I go to a Hackathon, I have a new project with something that I haven’t learned yet,” Wessels said.

   During the hackathon, mentors (student and parent volunteers with coding experience) play more of a supporting role while the participants code. Teachers and staff members can also be mentors, but usually participate in the background.

   “It’s more like a subtle management role and not necessarily a tutorial or a mentor role,” advisor Haggai Mark said. “I’m basically supposed to make sure that things are, you know, not getting out of hand.”

   Participants have the option to choose any coding language (e.g., Python, Java, C++, Scratch) and difficulty level they want to use for their projects. This flexibility enables students of all skill levels to participate. Even students who do not have any coding experience can join the Hackathon, as the events are not only about applying previous coding knowledge but also about learning as you go. 

   “One of the goals of the Tech Club is to come up with apps or programs that would benefit the community,” Mark said. 

   PantherHacks is looking for more participants and sponsors, so anyone that would like to try coding is welcome to join by visiting the Tech Club’s website at pantherhacks.tech.