More than 100 students from ten colleges and local high schools will be competing in the Central New York Hackathon this weekend.

The two-day event will take place on Friday from 4 to 9 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Utica College.

CNY Hackathon is a cybersecurity competition designed to improve the state of computer science and cybersecurity education  and more closely align academia with Central New York industry partners.

Schools competing include Clarkson University, Hamilton College, Herkimer College, Le Moyne College, Mohawk Valley Community College, Morrisville State College, Oneida-Herkimer-Madison BOCES, Suny Polytechnic Institute, Syracuse University and Utica College.

Assistant Professor of Computer Science Ronny Bull said the event filled up within two hours of opening.

“A lot of these students are gaining interest in the security field because it is a hot topic right now,” Bull said. “They are jumping on this event because they find that it is something they can't get anywhere else. This event gives them a real hands-on approach that they are not getting in the classroom. It gives them an extracurricular activity that they can do to help build their skills and build their resume.”

This will be the eleventh Hackathon to take place.

There will also be a job fair for the students on Saturday, with major employers including Amazon.

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