BY MICHELLE LAM
On January 28, the Society of Women Engineers and Girls Who Code hosted their second Hackathon. The event encouraged students to think outside the box and use their skills to solve problems.
The event gives students a starting point to explore coding and develop their technical skills. “[The purpose of this event was] to introduce opportunities to students who are interested in coding and technology but may not know where to start,” said Charlene Leung, President of Girls Who Code.
The students could choose to participate in either section, the Ideathon or the Hackathon. “I chose to participate in the Ideathon because I loved participating in it last year!” said Scarlett O’Brien. “I thought the event was very fun,”
The event aimed to inspire innovation, collaboration, critical thinking, and a chance to experience coding. Elizabeth Tchia, Vice President of Girls Who Code, said the club wanted “to nurture creative talent and allow students to put their coding skills to test in a fun competition!”
The participants could decide to work alone or in teams with their friends. “I really enjoyed participating in the hackathon in a team for the first time,” said Manav Shah, one of the winners of the Hackathon.
For the Ideathon, participants used their imagination and creativity to design an app on a poster that aimed to reduce food waste or improve food access around the world. “I enjoyed seeing how everyone interpreted the prompt,” said Elena Miller, winner of the Ideathon.
Hackathon teams received a set of prompts to decipher and needed to produce the correct coding output for each one, challenging participants to apply their skills in a competitive setting where the most efficient and accurate would win. “Feel great to be able to apply what I learned in class to a competition,” said Ved Patel, one of the winners of the Hackathon.
As the competition progressed, teams faced increasingly difficult questions and tackled each one step by step. “We were given 10 questions which progressively got more difficult,” said Patel. “We broke down each question to understand it in the most basic way possible.”
The teams demonstrated strong collaboration while solving the prompts. “Our team worked together really well. We split questions to save time and came together to check if the code functioned correctly,” said Shah.
Participants enjoyed the chance to tackle challenges and create ideas with their peers. “I would participate in the Ideathon again next year because I loved how it challenged my thinking and allowed me to see what other people created with the given prompt,” said Miller.
Posted on February 12, 2026
Photos by Michelle Lam
Knight Life 