Bridgewater-Raritan High School was the site for a regional hackathon organized by BRHacks, the sister organization of the school’s primary computer science club, CODE Club.

The event attracted over 40 people from both BRHS and surrounding districts, such as Montgomery and South Brunswick.

For those unfamiliar with a hackathon, it is a computer science competition that typically lasts between one day to a few days, where participants are supposed to create a computer science project, typically in a group, which they will submit at the end of the event and have a chance to win prizes.

In the case of BRHacks, participants had a whole day (10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.) and could be of any skill level, either coding beginners or experienced programmers. They formed teams of two to four to work on projects across a range of themes, including web development, mobile app creation and problem-solving through technology.

Competition categories were also specialized, such as cybersecurity or the environment. Each team used their ten hours to conceptualize, design and build their projects, all while learning from each other and pushing their creative limits. 

BRHacks also offered various workshops throughout the day. Many of these workshops were led by hackathon team members, with teaching topics related to Java, web development, data visualization and more. These workshops were intended to be short intro-level events for those interested in the topics. In addition, the event also invited several of the high school’s STEM clubs to host their own workshops. These included the Team 303 robotics club, which hosted a workshop on circuitry, as well as BR Prints, the 3-D printing club.

Two keynote speakers were also invited to share their insights. First was professor Waheed Bajwa, head researcher at the INSPIRE Lab at Rutgers, who talked about the general pace of innovation in tech, tying it back to his work at Rutgers while highlighting the importance of ethical development. Second was professor Patrick McKee from Rowan University, who elaborated on technological trends and provided his insight.

This event has been in the works since the start of January, where team members were grouped into different subteams to handle several aspects of this event. The subteams were Finance, headed by Shreya Gupta and Divyansha Nashine; Events and Logistics, headed by Arnav Dedhia and Ayushmaan Mukherjee; Outreach, headed by Joon Young Doh and Karolina Torbus; Tech and Design, headed by Kinshuk Goel; and Social Media, headed by Afraz Amin. The overall vision and leadership were provided by Saanvi Goel, the overall event head.

Senior Kinshuk Goel, the tech and design lead, expressed his thoughts about the event.

“This is why we love hackathons! Technology opens so many doors, and it’s exciting to see how we can use it to solve real-world problems. With categories like cybersecurity, environmental solutions, beginner projects and women in tech, we inspired participants to explore diverse challenges and bring their ideas to life,” he said.

Sophomore Harshit Kondle was a part of the events and logistics planning subteam.

“Being on the organizing team was a great experience that gave me insight into the hard work put in the Hackathon, especially after attending BR Hacks 2023. Next year, I look forward to further make this a better event, make more connections and increase the Hackathon’s audience to attract a wider array of high school students,” he said.

Sophomore Anvay Ajmera, who participated in the event, submitted two projects. The first was Grade Guru, a tool for calculating grade point averages efficiently; it won him third in the “Overall” category. The other was Locksafe, a simple password manager; it won him first place in the “Cybersecurity” category.

“Building these projects really helped me apply all my computer science skills, which I’ll definitely be using in future hackathons, including next year’s iteration of BRHacks. Overall, I thought the hackathon was well-organized, even though it may not have drawn as large a crowd as similar events,” he said.

With the second-ever BRHS Hackathon in the books, preparations will soon begin for the 2025, aimed to be the best hackathon yet.