On Saturday May 25th, the first-ever “Milpitas Hacks” event will be happening in Milpitas from 7:30am to 9:00pm.
The event was co-founded by Milpitas High School 11th graders Aahan Shah and Pranay Jain, and the MHS Hackathon Club. The Hackathon will provide an opportunity for high school students to collaborate in groups of four to develop applications toward real-world solutions. The event is open to all High School students (9th-12th grade) in the Bay Area who wish to participate. No prior coding experience is required for participants who wish to join.
When asked why they decided to host this event at Milpitas High School, Co-Founder Shah stated, “We decided to host this event at MHS because there has not been a major Hackathon there in recent memory. And we wanted to provide a platform for a great learning experience where students can immerse themselves in hands-on coding and compete while having fun.”
The Hackathon’s organizers will open by going over the event’s itinerary and introducing key members of the event team. Throughout the event, there will be some keynote speakers as well as different workshops on AI and coding. Snacks, lunch, and dinner will also be provided for participants. There will also be small team-building activities throughout the event for participants to partake in during short breaks from their projects.
The actual Hackathon, which will take up the bulk of the event, will have three different tracks or themes. Participants will choose from one of the three tracks and from there will have an open field where the goal is to create an application to solve a problem involving the track they chose. The participants get their tracks in the morning and have until judging time to work on their projects. The tracks will be mostly geared toward social good; participants will have the opportunity to target areas such as cybersecurity or education.
After the time limit is up, the participants will present their work to a panel of judges and get a score on how well they did. Along with this, the judges will also choose three winners for each of the three tracks (meaning a total of nine winners for the whole event). These winners will be awarded prize money as well as the opportunity to present their project in front of the City of Milpitas’ Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) Commission and showcase how their application can be used to help the community.
The STI Commission advises the City on all matters regarding science, technology, and innovation — specifically but not limited to topics on AI and IT as they pertain to the City of Milpitas.
Shah envisions the Hackathon as “a big platform for everybody to just come together, code together, compete, and possibly win some prizes.” He adds, “I just want to recognize a lot of other people who are part of my team as well to just show their commitment.”
Along with Shah and Jain as founders, the event will also be supported by Vasista Ramachandruni as the Head of Operations; Jeremiah de Guzman and Oliver Ma as tech leads; Devesh Mamidi for Tech; Harish Manukonda for Finances; and Ved Vyas and Jerry Yong as the event Sponsors. The event is also supported by the MHS Girls Who Code club, specifically member Tanvi Anumandla as the marketing lead and Diza Utreja for marketing. Milpitas High School AP Computer Science teacher Charles Castleman is also recognized by the team for his support of the event.
Registration to participate in Milpitas Hacks, as well as more information on the event, can be found at: https://milpitashacks.com.
