On Monday, April 13, 104 Computer Science students Class III and above gathered in the Roberts Ice Rink for the 2026 Computer Science Hackathon, where students were tasked with creating a discipline-specific academic tool or game for use at Milton. This year’s event also introduced access to Flint AI and other AI tools without any regulation of their use.

According to the Hackathon 2026 cover sheet, sent out to all Computer Science students on Sunday, April 12, students were asked to “make a tool or game that can be used for a specific subject/department at Milton Academy.” The following day, students worked from 8:05 a.m. to 3:20 p.m. in teams of four to five to develop an application on Java, the programming language introduced in Computer Science 1.

Computer Science teacher May Blair explained that the prompt opened the door both for “artistry” and questions like “how do you communicate with AI well to have it create good pieces of code for you? How do you debug? How do you manage a team?”

Computer Science teacher Emma Bradford noted that the department “had freshmen working with seniors…[and] a mix of computer science levels,” creating an environment where collaboration was both encouraged and necessary. The Hackathon continues to honor former Computer Science teacher Kendall Chun, who had worked closely with Computer Science Department Chair Chris Hales. Blair explained that the Department has worked to ensure the day remains “a celebratory event, even after [Chun’s] passing.”

For most students involved, that collaborative environment became the highlight of the day. Hannah Shneidman ’28, currently in Computer Science 1, reflected, “I really like how I got to work with people who were more experienced than I was.” She described that the Hackathon, though “a really long day,” was also “really fun.”

Nikita Baruah ’27 pointed out that when she thinks of computer science, she does not often think of collaboration. For her, the Hackathon—which involved eighteen mixed-grade groupings—showed “that coding is all about doing it together.”

Alongside the excitement came a conversation centered on the growing role of artificial intelligence in programming. Adair Johnson ’27 was one student who was enthusiastic about AI’s potential, explaining that it helps her to see “[her] ideas come to life.” She continued, “You can really pump out a lot of work and a lot of code using AI.”

But not everyone saw the addition of AI as a positive. Baruah worried that “a lot of the teams didn’t code much themselves at all…most of it was done by AI.” While she acknowledged that “our future is AI,” Baruah considered “finding that balance about using AI and coding” to be “really important.”

Isaac Wu ’28 also pointed out that “it’s often difficult for people nowadays, especially with their short attention spans from schooling, to focus for such long of a time.” Wu wondered “if there’s any ways to maintain engagement during the Hackathon.” Wu suggested clearer roles in the teams, more check-ins from faculty, and more careful alignment of projects with personal interests so each student can feel invested.

Still, Blair pointed to the range of skills involved, including communication, design, and teamwork, as well as the ability to work effectively with emerging tools, as benefits of the day. “There’s so much room for non-programming principles to come in,” she said. “There are so many other pieces of [computer science], that I hope people can… see themselves as welcome and sought after in [all of them].”