I have been to a lot of hackathons as a competitor. I have also now run one twice. AeroHacks is a hackathon at Emerald High School. I co-founded it, and my co-founder and I led it in 10th grade and again in 11th grade. Between the two of us we handled everything: budgeting, finding sponsors, working with the judges, and running the event on the day. Across the two events we have offered $14k in prizes to 140+ student participants. It was really fun to get to do it twice, and the two years were very different.
Year one: 10th grade
The first AeroHacks was an all-day event. It started in the morning and ran into the afternoon.
What I remember most is how much time I got to spend with the people who came. We ran workshops during the day, and between them I walked around and watched what everyone was building. A lot of the students were at their first hackathon. Seeing someone go from an empty editor in the morning to a working project in the afternoon is the best part of the whole thing.
Year two: 11th grade
The second AeroHacks, on March 6, 2026, was a shorter evening event, from 5:00 to 9:00 PM. It had three tracks: AI, Game Development, and Open Innovation.
The big change for me was the guest judges. We brought in judges from industry, including people from Gusto, Roblox, and Cloudflare. Getting that process to work was very interesting: reaching out, explaining the event, and then setting up judging so that every team got a fair look in a short window. I had only ever seen judging from the competitor’s side of the table. Being on the other side showed me how much planning goes into those last thirty minutes.
Thank you to our sponsors
A hackathon does not happen without sponsors. Thank you to every sponsor who supported AeroHacks in both years, including Desmos, GameMaker, Phaser, Krotos, and XYZ. The prizes, the tools, and a lot of the excitement in the room came from you.
What I liked most
Both years, the thing I enjoyed most was the same. I got to talk to people and see what they were building. Some projects were polished and some barely ran, and all of them were made by students who decided to spend a day or an evening making something. It was fascinating to be there for that, and to have helped make it happen in the first place.
Thanks to the rest of the AeroHacks team, our judges, our volunteers, and everyone who came.