The last hackathon I attended was quite a while ago. It was at MIT, which was fun, and I think the theme was bookish. I really enjoyed myself. My coding skills at the time were enough to contribute, but not so much that my team was really counting on me. I met some interesting people and we built a thing. I still follow some of my former team members on GitHub.

Next month, a hackathon is coming to us. The NASA International Space Apps Challenge is happening worldwide, with Kingsborough hosting one of the local events. This is a great initiative for our college, and I hope that a lot of Kingsborough students participate and have some fun.

I signed up yesterday, and I’m trying to convince some of the other librarians to join me. Hackathons are great entry points for people who are code-curious, or who may be trying to figure out how to start their code journey. My experience of the MIT event was that is was supportive, inclusive and positive. I hope the Kingsborough event lives up to that. I encourage you to sign up, explore and enjoy! It’s not about creating an incredible, prize-winning app; it’s about learning and having fun.

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