Bishop Ireton High School hosted its second annual Hackathon, a student-run event that gives middle and high schoolers the opportunity to attend workshops, learn how to code and create their own projects.

More than 150 students from 43 schools attended the two-day event held Nov. 3-4 on the school’s Alexandria campus.

“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 Patrick Riley, director of this year’s Hackathon and a member of the Bishop Ireton class of 2019. “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.”

Students participated in workshops that included 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.

“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 Terri Kelly, the computer science teacher 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.”

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).

For a full list of student projects, visit https://hackbi.devpost.com/.