Westfield Students Stage Second Hackathon

WESTFIELD, NJ - An app to help regulate a plant’s environment, a homework helper chatbot and other innovative uses of technology were among the projects created at Westfield High School’s 2nd Annual Hackathon on Dec. 8.

Organized by seniors Ethan Jaffee, Zachary Lemberg, and Justin O’Boyle, the 12-hour event was attended by 90 beginner and experienced computer programmers in 8th through 12th grade.

“During the day, students learned new topics at Java and HTML workshops led by Jaron Rubenstein and Jamie Kingsberry, both professionals in our community,” said Jessica Norworth a mathematics/computer science teacher at Westfield High School who chaperoned the event, along with advisor and Westfield High School math teacher Louis De Angelo.

Rubenstein and fellow sponsor Paul Nunes welcomed participants to the Hackathon while Kingsberry closed the event with recommendations on ways students can further their computer science learning.
Attendees completed projects and competed for prizes.

Winning projects included an app that communicated with sensors to regulate a plant’s environment, a homework helper chatbot to assist students with their workloads through Google Calendar scheduling, and an app that could be used during an emergency lockdown to provide real time information about what was occurring in the building.

Norworth and De Angelo thanked the event’s sponsors including Alex Hodara of Hodara Real Estate Group, Chris Zarou of Visionary Music Group and Logic, .tech Domains, Wolfram Language, and indico, along with the WHS IT department and custodial staff for “creating a working space for the Hackathon.”

Photos courtesy of Jessica Norworth, Louis De Angelo)

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