Bitcamp Brings Weekend of Coding to UMD

Rows of laptops, cables and sleeping bags filled Reckord Armory as students settled in for Bitcamp’s 12th anniversary at the University of Maryland. From April 10-12, high school students and undergraduates spent 36 hours building projects, attending workshops and working through ideas.

The annual event drew more than 1,000 registered participants, including over 100 from outside UMD. Considered one of the East Coast’s largest collegiate hackathons, Bitcamp brought together programmers, designers and builders from across the region to develop software and hardware solutions over the weekend.

This year’s event featured several tracks tied to current trends in technology, including a general track, machine learning, game development, data science, quantum computing and app development. Organizers also incorporated the Campfire Games, which placed participants on one of three teams and awarded points through workshops, challenges and mini-events.

Jonathan Davis, a founding organizer of Bitcamp and a 2019 UMD economics alum, said the event is designed to emphasize learning and community rather than competition.

“At the core of it is we’re looking for people to have fun,” Davis said. “We want to make a space where people can enjoy themselves, meet people, build teams and, very importantly, learn new things.”

Davis shared that hackathons also shaped his own college experience. Although he started as a computer science major before switching to economics, he said Bitcamp and similar events helped him continue building technical skills outside the classroom.

For participants, the weekend often became a lesson in the gap between an idea and a finished product. Dustin O’Brien, a senior computer science student at Salisbury University, said the event has pushed his team to adapt as technical challenges emerged.

“It’s fun to learn new things and kind of work with technologies,” O’Brien said. “Stuff seems easier in your head. Then, when you work with it in person, you realize it doesn’t actually line up the way you pictured it.”

He said that realization has been one of the most useful parts of the event.

“Working on the architecture and figuring out how things actually come together has been a valuable learning experience for me,” O’Brien said. “Everything tends to take longer than expected, and that’s been the biggest realization.”

Returning participants also used the event to build on ideas from past years. Suchith Rao, a sophomore computer science major on the machine learning track, said he and his teammates returned after winning Bitcamp’s sustainability track in 2025.

This year, Rao said, the team again focused on sustainability, this time with a Terp-themed AI agent meant to encourage students to recycle, walk or use public transit by offering points and suggestions.

“We’re trying to encourage people to be more sustainable with their choices,” Rao said.

The project reflects a broader focus on how student work at hackathons can address everyday campus behaviors and translate ideas into practical use.

“I think bringing awareness and motivating people to be more sustainable, especially on a college campus, is really important,” Rao said. “That’s where it starts, small changes in daily habits that can add up over time.”

—Story by Samuel Malede Zewdu, CS Communications