JAY PINDIPOL, Staff Writer
December 8, 2023, NBTHS Technology Club hosted its first Hackathon since the pandemic. For those who don't know, a Hackathon is an event that gathers coders together to work on a software.
This years goal was to create an Algorithm to sort data. In order to win, there were 3 categories that you needed to qualify.
Best Time: The sorting algorithm is built to sort the data as fast and efficiently as possible, and is given to those who make the fastest algorithm
Shortest Code: This is given to those who implement an efficient algorithm using the least amount of code
Extra Components: This is given to those who implement visualizations, or anything else to their algorithms
The time limit for coding the algorithm was about 1 hour and 30 minutes, with there being 3 main prizes:
1st: $25 Amazon Card - Won by Tawsif Uddin (11)
2nd: $15 Amazon Card - Won by Aayu Kansagra (10) and Ololade Omotosho (10)
3rd: $10 Amazon Card - Won by Yashvi Patel (10) and Ummi Hashim (10)
Participation Awards - Roberto (10), Damien Gallino-Holland (11), Jeyona Jayaraj (9), Nishka Pandya (11), Anish Sinha (9), and Denzel Zhou (9)
Overall, the event took two and a half hours, with the coders having around 1 - 2 hours for coding their algorithm, and 30 minutes for presenting their work.
Freshmen Interviews:
Denzel Zhou and Anish Sinha are both freshmen at NBTHS. This is Zhou's first time in a Hackathon while Sinha has had experience before.
Zhou and Sinha both joined this year's Hackathon because of the Technology club. Sinha wanted to make something and found it to be "fun."
Sophomore Interviews:
Aayu Kansagra and Ololade Omotosho are both sophomores, with this being their first time being in a Hackathon.
Omotosho started coding because of the bots on Discord. While he is good in the tech field, he wants to continue on this path and plans to make games in the future. His primary focus for the Hackathon was "winning."
Kansagra, however, got into coding from his dad, and wants to focus on that field of technology. He takes AP classes to further improve in this field. He wants to be able to code games, and understand how different computers work.
Junior Interviews:
Damien Gallino-Holland and Oliver Thompson are both juniors, and this is their first time being involved in a Hackathon.
Thompson has previously participated with Robotix, and wanted to get involved with this year's Hackathon; he had a great experience.
Gallino-Holland has been interested in this for a long time, and found the time to be "fun."