EurekaHACKS, a hackathon hosted at Abbey Park HS on May 4, 2024 attracted more than 200 attendees, including participants, judges, event staff and other guests. 
The hackathon challenged students to create a programming project connected to one of two themes: food or education, with more than $7,500 worth of prizes awarded to winning participants. A top prize was awarded in both the food and education categories, in addition to six other prizes awarded to a total of seven winning projects. Other awards included the Best Use of AI Award, Women in CS Award, Creativity Award, Best Hardware Hack Award and Best Domain Name Award.
Winning projects included:
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StrobeShield, a pair of glasses designed to prevent photosensitive seizures
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FoodABC2XYZ, an online database that uses AI to recognize and detail a dish’s cultural importance and ingredients
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Local Lingo, a role-playing game designed to teach players a new language
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FridgeSync, an application that keeps track of one’s fridge contents and allows users to generate nutritional insights, recipes and grocery lists
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BAYMAX, a personal self-care assistant equipped with sensors to read its user’s vital signs
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Tasty Snack or Heart Attack, a project that can detect a food’s suitability for a user’s dietary restrictions based on an image of that food
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PantryPal, an app that can generate recipes based on ingredients input by the user
Students participated in workshops on topics such as quantum computing, robotics, cryptocurrency and AI and viewed a special message from the Canadian Space Agency presented by Astronaut Joshua Kutryk. Participants were also able to take part in a Mario Kart tournament, chess and karaoke.
Adam Selim, a Grade 12 student at Abbey Park HS and co-founder of EurekaHACKS, called the event “a truly unforgettable experience”, which aims to bridge the gap between students who are proficient in programming and those looking to get started.
“We’ve worked towards this goal by not only curating a competitive side to our event, but by also hosting educational workshops on STEM subjects, inviting industry experts to provide mentorship and partnering with a community robotics team to connect students with even more learning opportunities,” Selim says. “High school is a great place for students to explore their interests, and so I would highly recommend attending EurekaHACKS, to students with or without coding experience alike."
Abbey Park HS Grade 12 student and co-founder of EurekaHACKS, David Lim found the hackathon to be extremely fulfilling and successful. He says the event allowed the EurekaHACKS team “to promote STEM education through workshops and create a platform for passionate students to share their ideas."
Lim would recommend anyone interested in STEM attend a hackathon because “the mix of competitiveness and collaboration found in hackathons makes for a uniquely awe-inspiring experience."
Adam Rivard, teacher at Abbey Park HS describes the hackathon as “an exercise in guided curiosity,” which connects with the Learning and Achievement area of focus in the
HDSB’s 2020-2024 Multi-Year Plan.
Rivard says, “Participants are given a topic or problem space and asked to "hack" together a solution to any problem they see within that space. In order to be successful, participants must be creative, resilient, resourceful and manage their time well. This often results in participants needing to branch out away from what they know and learn something new on the fly, a very valuable and transferable skill in both school and life in general.”
