Approximately 100 area college and high school students are expected to visit Missouri S&T this February to participate in ShamHacks, a 36-hour hackathon of coding, problem solving and team building.

The event will begin with an opening ceremony at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 9, and conclude with a hacker showcase at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 11. Both events will take place in St. Pat’s Ballroom of the Havener Center at Missouri S&T.

Hackathons are short-term events where small teams work together to create a working software prototype or application. ShamHacks will challenge students to take an idea and make it into a product while considering customer needs, feature specifications and meeting a deadline.

“ShamHacks is a chance to recruit new students, retain existing ones and host a networking event since many companies will be at the event actively recruiting students,” says Shelly McDavid, access services and learning commons librarian at Missouri S&T.

Proceeds from the event’s created applications will go to Fort Leonard Wood to help meet the needs of U.S. veterans, active duty military and their families.

The event is hosted by Missouri S&T’s chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery, Curtis Laws Wilson Library, the computer science department, career opportunities and employer relations, and Innovation Corps. For more information about the event, email msthackathon@mst.edu.