The White Station High School Entrepreneurship Club on Saturday, Nov. 9, hosted its first all-Memphis Hackathon, “Hacks 901,” and the event was a huge success.

Scholars from White Station, Houston High, Collierville High, and Cordova High participated in the inaugural event, which offered students a chance to learn more about computer science and showcase their skills in a fun and exciting way. The students competed across three levels of coding challenges – beginner, intermediate, and advanced. 

A hackathon, also known as a codefest, is a social coding event that brings together computer programmers and other interested people to improve upon or build a new software program. The word hackathon combines the words hacker, which means clever programmer, and marathon, an event marked by endurance. 

“A hackathon is like a coding challenge,” White Station student Aditi Arunprakash said in an April interview after the club hosted a Hackathon for White Station students. “ … Hackathons can be done [where] people can build apps, (and do) a coding challenge and students have one hour to complete a coding challenge.”

The free event was open to all high school students, who were allowed to compete individually or as a team of two in one of the three levels. The only requirement to participate was having an interest in computer science. Students were able to showcase their problem-solving skills and creativity and have fun and a chance to win some cool prizes.

White Station students emerged victorious, bringing home the “Hacks 901” trophy. Spartans Clark Wang won first place in the Advanced Level, while Jackson Yang won first place in the Intermediate Level.

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