Imagining a World Offline, High School Students Build Solutions at Stony Brook Hackathon

For high school students raised with constant access to connectivity, the idea of losing it can feel unimaginable.

At Stony Brook University, students were asked to imagine that scenario and then solve it, creating ideas for technologies designed to keep critical systems running when networks go down.

The result was a day-long hackathon that brought together nearly 130 students from 15 school districts across Long Island for a day of collaboration, coding and real world problem-solving. Hosted by the university’s Office for Research and Innovation and the Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology (CEWIT), and made possible by Verizon through a sponsorship with Stony Brook University Advancement, the April 23 event challenged students with the theme “Coding Innovation for Digital Resilience.”

Working in teams of four, students were tasked with developing entrepreneurial solutions to challenges surrounding digital reliability, from disaster response to communication breakdowns. But success would require more than technical or coding skills.

“What we really want to see is all of you working together and collaborating, utilizing not just your coding experience, but your teamwork ability,” said Derek O’Connor, workforce development manager in the Office of Economic Development at Stony Brook. “Why does the world need what you’re coming up with?”

Teams had only a few hours to design, build and pitch their ideas to a panel of judges, requiring them to think quickly and communicate clearly.

“This is a pretty short time frame for a hackathon,” said Abrar Ohe, a Stony Brook University sophomore computer science major and a mentor for the event. “They have to work quickly, think quickly… but they’re still generating good and ambitious ideas for half a day.”

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