Maryland Hackathon Brings Students Together to Solve Real Issues

Students and tech lovers in Prince George's County are getting the chance to turn their coding skills into real community solutions this September.

The county's Office of Information Technology is partnering with Capitol Technology University, Amazon Web Services, and Accenture to host an innovation hackathon on September 18th. The all-day event runs from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Avrum Gudelsky Memorial Auditorium in Laurel.

This isn't just another competition. Participants will work on actual problems facing their county, from improving services residents use every day to strengthening cybersecurity protections.

Teams can choose from four challenge tracks: Citizen-Facing Services, OIT Strategy, Cybersecurity, or General Innovation. They're free to use any tools they want, from GitHub to AWS to any open-source software that helps bring their ideas to life.

The best part? Professional technologists will be there all day as mentors. County IT staff and technology partners will guide teams, helping transform rough ideas into workable solutions that could actually get implemented.

Judges will look at four things: how much the solution helps residents or the county, how creative it is, whether it fits the challenge category, and if it can actually be built and used.

The Ripple Effect

This hackathon is part of something bigger. Prince George's County is building a tech ecosystem right in its own backyard, creating pathways for young people to launch technology careers without leaving home.

The event supports the county's strategic plan to use digital solutions to serve residents better. It's about more than just one day of coding. It's about showing students that they can be the ones solving problems in their own community.

Registration is open now, but space is limited. Interested participants can sign up at oit.mypgc.us/futuretech.

The county's vision is clear: grow opportunities for young people, strengthen education, and power economic growth through local tech talent and innovation.

When communities invest in their young technologists like this, everyone wins.