Canyon Crest senior helps launch hackathon for high schoolers

In response to the many hackathons that require participants to be 18 or older, a group of local high school students are organizing a hackathon “for high schoolers and by high schoolers.”

Hackathons bring together teams of computer programmers, and anyone interested in learning computer programming, for a daylong competition to create a software project.

“It could be anything as long as it’s productive,” said Harris Beg, a senior at Canyon Crest Academy and president of the newly launched hackathon, called Super Hack.

Super Hack will be held March 21 at the Kearny Mesa headquarters of medical equipment company ResMed, one of the event’s sponsors. Registration opened in December and runs through Jan. 30. Registrants will be notified three to four weeks later. The 12-hour event will begin with 8 a.m. check-in, a welcome ceremony at 9 a.m. and teams of up to four people forming at 9:30 a.m.

Hacking will begin at 10 a.m. and end at 5 p.m., followed by judging at 5:30 p.m., a dinner at 6:30 p.m. and a closing ceremony with results announced at 7:30 p.m. The first place prize package includes the SIMREX X300C mini drone quadcopter. There will also be a second place award, and prizes for most creative hack and most profitable hack.

A theme for Super Hack will be announced on the day of the event.

According to the event’s website, programming beginners are also encouraged to apply to take part in Super Hack. There will be workshops to help get them up to speed, including an introduction to Python, one of the most popular coding languages in the world.

Projects that Beg completed at other hackathons include software that can turn written notes into digital notes and a website that orders Spotify playlists.

“I’m finally applying my knowledge to something real people can use for real purposes,” he said.

Beg said he’s considering which college to go to. He plans to study computer science with the goal of finding a career that allows him to “build software that impacts people.”

ResMed HQ is located at 9001 Spectrum Center Boulevard in San Diego. For more information, visit superhack.org.