Now in its 6th year, Brearley's BevHacks is bigger and better! A day long in-person hackathon at The Brearley School (590 East 83rd St, New York, NY 10028), with lots of speakers, workshops, food, free swag, and PRIZES!
This hackathon is designed for all middle and high school students to learn how to solve real-world problems and make big changes. We are beginner friendly, hosting intro workshops and mentor assistance for students to leap into the world of coding!
Register to compete!
Speakers:
Gabrielle Ross (Brearley '23) is a Princeton Undergraduate Junior part of the Class of 2027 majoring in Computer Science. She is an avid programmer and loves to hike, code, and play sports.
Currently, Gabrielle is working on startup development, not only in founding her own two SAAS startups (customapps.app and voluntr), but also most recently this summer as the Lead Software Engineer at Princeton student startup Lovestruck Games. This team is developing in UNREAL Engine 5 to create a historically accurate action-adventure video game following a Native American protagonist in Colonial America. Here she is focused on backend development, particularly in AI NPC interactions and combat.
Gabrielle has done significant research in astrophysics. Working with an MIT (now Harvard professor), she built a custom Pipeline in Python to confirm exoplanet discoveries. She has presented multiple times on this work at MIT, Yale, and Princeton, and is primary-authored on a paper published to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2023. Her work has contributed to lots of impact on multiple other research projects, where she is co-authored on seven additional publications. Gabrielle also worked in similar data analysis for the Navy’s High School summer internship program in applying her programming skills as a tool to have a greater impact in science and everyday life.
Ammon Love is the founder and creative director of Lovestruck Games, a Princeton-based indie game studio developing Lenapehoking, a 3D action-adventure game set in 1763 that brings Lenape history, culture, and language to life through cutting-edge taechnology and authentic storytelling.
A non-traditional senior at Princeton University majoring in Public and International Affairs with minors in cognitive science and statistics & machine learning, Ammon is a member of both the Cherokee Nation and the Delaware Tribe of Indians. His work sits at the intersection of technology, narrative design, and historical research using emerging tools like Unreal Engine 5 to tell stories that have long gone untold in mainstream media.
Ammon is a 2025 Udall Scholar, recognized for his commitment to tribal public policy and Native health care. He is also a recipient of Princeton's Martin A. Dale '53 Summer Award and as served as a Crisis Intervention Specialist on the National Suicide Prevention lifeline and a 2022 Volunteer of the Year for the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention.
A lifelong gamer and filmmaker, Ammon brings over nine years of media production experience to his current venture having previously won Videographer of the Year and the 2016 Business Innovation Award for Video Marketing at Best of State Utah.
Ms. Pan currently serves as the Chief Digital Officer for UJA-Federation of New York, a role she assumed in 2024 to drive digital strategy and enterprise-level innovation. Previously, Ms. Pan spent nearly a decade as the Chief Technology Officer for The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), where she was responsible for the architectural vision and technical infrastructure supporting the museum's global mission. During her tenure at MoMA, she orchestrated a comprehensive digital transformation, ranging from the deployment of cloud-native and mobile solutions to the integration of big data and the development of a robust cybersecurity program. Most recently, she championed the adoption of AI to enhance visitor experiences and streamline the management of MoMA’s vast collection.
Ms. Pan’s expertise is rooted in her background as an engineer and leader in the private sector, having held key positions at Scholastic Inc. and Remedy/BMC Software across New York and California. Her ability to navigate complex technical landscapes while maintaining a focus on user experience makes her a standout leader at the intersection of art and technology. In addition to her executive career, she contributes to the academic community as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Pratt Institute’s School of Information. A regular presenter on the international stage, Ms. Pan holds both a BS and an MS from Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Vincent Li is a senior studying computer science at Yale University and an alum of the Horace Mann School (‘22). Passionate about machine learning and natural language processing, Vincent has done research in the “Transferability of Quantum Adversarial Machine Learning”, “Using Convolutional Neural Networks to Understand the Impact of COVID-19 on Electricity Demand in Texas”, and “Prompting Code Interpreters to Write Better Unit Tests on Quixbugs Functions”. Beyond AI, he also has experience in data analytics and cybersecurity. He has experience using AI models in the finance industry as an Enterprise Risk Management Intern for State Street (where he created a chatbot for their Financial Risk Department and saved an estimated 500 hours per week) and a Machine Learning Researcher on Point72’s Internal Alpha Capture Team (where he created AI models that identified equity trading signals). As an undergraduate learning assistant, Vincent has conducted technical interview preparation sessions and taught key concepts in data structures and algorithms. Outside of the classroom, Vincent is a member of the Yale Urban Philanthropic Fund, Yale Computer Society, Yale Undergraduate Diversified Investments, Yale Undergraduate Hedge Fund Association, and the Yale Ballroom Dance Team! Vincent will be speaking about his interest in and engagement with AI, both through academic research and industry application, and we hope he’ll inspire any of you who are interested in the new age of artificial intelligence!
All competitors must be middle or high school students with valid school ID
Teams of 1 - 3 students
Code presented to judges must be written during competition time
Code must be written by competitors
Idea must be original and contrived during competition time
We only review projects developed by BevHacks contestants that hackers have worked on during the allotted hacking time. We do not allow pre-made projects. Using AI to write code is prohibited. If a project uses a non-standard module or package, please make note of it in your submission. If you have questions about using 'standard modules', please reach out to organizers during hacking time.
Creativity: How original is the idea? Is the project something that is commonly done before, or is it a new idea? (This can be for the idea itself or how the problem was approached.)
Impact: Is the impact of the project explained?
Presentation: How organized, innovative, and engaging are the video and description?
Functionality: What is the current state of the project? Is it usable as is right now? How good is the navigation?
UI/UX: Is the app accessible and intuitive to use?
Technical Difficulty: Is the project technically interesting or difficult? Were there real technical challenges to overcome?
Think of an idea that is related to or solving the prompt / theme
Execute as much as you can of that idea
Make a 2-3 (max 4) minute presentation on your idea
Submit your write-up of your idea, a video, and your code on Devpost / Google Forms
Make sure you signed up for Devpost and joined our hackathon there (this will allow you to share your project to us for judging). If you are under 13, you can submit via Google Forms.
If you know what coding language you want to use, make sure it is running properly on your computer without any updates or installations necessary.
Most hackathon projects are apps or websites, so if you would like to use HTML to make a website, you can use any editor (Mac: TextEdit, Sublime, etc. Windows: Notes, Notepad++, etc.).
If you would like to use Xcode to make an iOS app you can only do it on a Mac and need to have downloaded Xcode. It is a very large download (~12 gigabytes) so it takes a long time and uses a decent amount of storage on your computer.
Note: You are welcome to use any language, but these are the ones we will do workshops in if you are interested in beginner workshops: HTML/CSS/JavaScript
Best Overall
Best in Beginner
Best UI/UX Design
Best Brearley
Prizes include mechanical keyboards, customizable bluetooth speakers, cozy hoodies, and more to come!
Award Qualifications:
For the UI/UX Prize: The app must incorporate an environmental theme and have an accessible, intuitive, and user-centered design.
For the Beginner Prize: BevHacks must be the first hackathon for all team members.
For the Brearley Prize: All team members must be Brearley students.