RailRiders to Host High School “Hackathon” at PNC Field

The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders will host local high school students for a “hackathon” on November 6 in the Geisinger Champions Club at PNC Field during NEPA STEM Ecosystem’s Celebration of STEM in Industry.

A “hackathon” is an invention marathon. Programmers, designers, builders and more join together to learn, build, and share their creations. Hackathons are not limited to computer science interests — this “hackathon” is open to students who have an interest in technology and are eager to learn.

Teams of students (with diverse backgrounds and interests in areas like math, science, design, economics, etc.) will be given a “problem” and their challenge will be creating a mobile/web app that will help solve that problem. The “problem” for this event will relate to something at PNC Field, but students will not know the challenge until they arrive on the day of the event. Students will receive hints related to the task through social media during the week leading up to November 6 and multiple experts will be on-site that day to answer any questions they have regarding the challenge.

The students will be creating a “wire-frame” of an actual app, but not completing coding and creating a real app. At the end of the event, students will present their apps to the event judges and a winner will be announced. Cash prizes along with some special gifts from the RailRiders will be awarded to the winners.

Registration is still open for high school teams of three to five students and this event is not open to the public. School districts may register more than one team. Students can range between ninth and twelfth grade and a team should be comprised of three to five individuals. Districts are encouraged to create diverse teams of all abilities and aptitudes with a variety of talents with attention to skill sets such as coding and programming, graphic designers/artists and user experience design, as well as those who excel in science and math. It is suggested to have at least one alternate student per team. Districts can also register for all virtual participation in this event.

To register for this event, contact Stephanie Williams at swilliams@iu19.org. For more information on other events happening during NEPA STEM Ecosystem’s Celebration of STEM in Industry, visit NEPASTEM.ORG.