About

The purpose of a hackathon is to take an idea for a solution and develop it into some sort of proof of concept or prototype. Typically, these are software ideas of some sort, and that is why a hackathon is described as a programming competition. But, we want as many people to participate as possible, and absolutely no programming experience is necessary. A good idea, even if its a drawing, or a flowchart, or a video presentation is much more powerful than a fully-fledged app of a bad idea.

We would love to have you participate, even if you have never programmed before! Members of both the LHS Robotics Teams: 2 Bits and a Byte and Parity Bits will be there to provide assistance throughout the event!

With the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 a global pandemic, our state and town government has issued guidance for members of our community to practice social distancing, in an effort to flatten the curve of viral infections across the population. The isolation currently being experienced within our community has given rise to many challenges big and small. We want to create a problem solving community which can brainstorm, experiment and build solutions to help address this crisis.

For younger students, https://scratch.mit.edu/ is a great way to get started programming, but there is no requirement as to how you develop an idea. The end result is a video submission, but it could even be a small skit or a presentation of something creative that meets the needs of the community.

Some ideas:

A rube Goldberg-style machine to bring mail from the mailbox inside without anyone touching it (points for creativity!)

A face shield that sanitizes itself

• Dr. Julie Hackett, LPS Superintendent

• Mr. Joe Pato, Select Board Member

• Ms. Sara Cuthbertson, Lexington School Committee Member

• Mr. PK Shiu, Head of Architecture, eMoney Adviser, Lexington Communications Advisory Committee Member

A practical, feasible and creative solution that meets the needs of the community during the pandemic, presented in a video no longer than 2 minutes in length.

In the video, make sure to showcase your idea fully, and explain all of the technical details. Explain the problem you were trying to solve, and how your solution works, as well as why it is optimal for the task. Feel free to highlight any challenges you overcame during the development of the idea or other interesting aspects of your technical/creative/problem-solving ability!

If you have the source code of your project, or it is hosted on scratch or GitHub, feel free to upload/submit a link to it in the submission form as well!

We also ask for a brief text description of your project and any other information you would like to add that is not in your video in the submission form.