For the second consecutive year, a team of highly skilled Peddie student programmers worked diligently to prepare a contest of skill, speed and coding excellence: PeddieHacks.

PeddieHacks is a 48-hour celebration of tech and the power of independent coders to work together to do amazing things, hosted by the Peddie Computer Science Club. The competition is open to high school students and college undergraduates, with both novice and experienced programmers working together to solve real-world problems. 

“It’s competitive,” said student organizer Rohan Nunugonda ’22, who previously won a Scholar award in the National Cyber Scholarship Competition. “But it’s a competition that drives you. That’s what people who participate in these kinds of events find fun. As an organizer, I thought it would be fun to spread that joy.”

Participants were given two tracks and two possible prompts for their programs: One for safety and security and one for fintech and e-commerce. In their 48 hours of programming time, participants developed apps designed to give stock recommendations, encrypt files, request help from nearby police officers and (in the case of one application called “Bear in Mind”) warn hikers of nearby bears.

In addition to allowing young programmers to show off their skills, PeddieHacks also provided opportunities for incredible prizes and professional development. Twenty-eight sponsors donated a total of $50,000 in prizes for winners, including a SWAG bag for participants with a value of over $900. Programmers also attended workshops hosted by professionals in the field, including Peddie alumnae Alex Wolfe ’08, an engineering manager at Coinbase who some call the “Queen of Crypto,” and Erin Fago ’16, a software engineer at Leidos and cybersecurity expert.

PeddieHacks drew in 365 programmers worldwide, almost doubling the attendance of last year’s event. The student organizers put a collective 734 hours of work into making the event a success. They wrote to corporations to obtain sponsorship money and prizes, invited programmers to lead workshops, recruited judges, kept track of their finances and even did their own marketing. It’s impressive work on its own, but the team’s careful planning did more than make this year’s PeddieHacks a success: It’s also preserving the future of the event by providing a blueprint for new leaders. “It’s a sustainable way to make sure PeddieHacks keeps going, even after we graduate,” said student organizer Arjun Agrawal ’22. “That’s one thing we can be proud of.”

Student organizers hope to make next year’s PeddieHacks a Major League Hacking event. Major League Hacking is an official student hackathon league that powers and promotes over 200 student-run events annually. Organizers hope that this will draw even more participants and even bigger sponsorships. As Nunugonda put it, “The only direction I see this going is up.”

“The reason people came to PeddieHacks is that [the student organizers] did a phenomenal job,” said faculty advisor Joy Wolfe, “and they did it all by themselves, as a team.”