![“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasn't been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but I've had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. There's so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesn't exist, you can build it yourself," Ishaan Parate said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DSC_8149-900x604.jpg)
![“When I came into high school, I was ready to be a follower. But DECA was a game changer for me. It helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and it's played such a major role in who I've become today. To be able to successfully lead a chapter of 150 students, an officer team and be one of the upperclassmen I once really admired is something I'm [really] proud of,” Anvitha Tummala ('21) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-25-at-9.50.05-AM-900x594.png)
![“I think getting up in the morning and having a sense of purpose [is exciting]. I think without a certain amount of drive, life is kind of obsolete and mundane, and I think having that every single day is what makes each day unique and kind of makes life exciting,” Neymika Jain (12) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Screen-Shot-2017-06-03-at-4.54.16-PM.png)
![“My slogan is ‘slow feet, don’t eat, and I’m hungry.’ You need to run fast to get where you are–you aren't going to get those championships if you aren't fast,” Angel Cervantes (12) said. “I want to do well in school on my tests and in track and win championships for my team. I live by that, [and] I can do that anywhere: in the classroom or on the field.”](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC5146-900x601.jpg)
![“[Volleyball has] taught me how to fall correctly, and another thing it taught is that you don’t have to be the best at something to be good at it. If you just hit the ball in a smart way, then it still scores points and you’re good at it. You could be a background player and still make a much bigger impact on the team than you would think,” Anya Gert (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AnnaGert_JinTuan_HoHPhotoEdited-600x900.jpeg)
![“I'm not nearly there yet, but [my confidence has] definitely been getting better since I was pretty shy and timid coming into Harker my freshman year. I know that there's a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyone's so driven and that has really pushed me to kind of try to find my own place in high school and be more confident,” Alyssa Huang (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AlyssaHuang_EmilyChen_HoHPhoto-900x749.jpeg)
Bay Area’s coders compete in Harker Programming Invitational
Programming club officers Rakesh Nori (10) and Alexandra Michael (12) sit in the audience before a talk. The club hosted talks and also featured a keynote speaker.
April 23, 2018
Students dispersed across Nichols Atrium focused on their laptops, hastily typing on their keyboards with looks of focus and intent as they were locked in on challenging programming problems. The teams nervously chatting amongst themselves, racing for the top spot in the Harker Programming Invitational.
The Programming Club hosted the annual Harker Programming Invitational on Mar. 18 in Nichols Atrium. The event consisted of the main contest, sponsor talks, a challenge round, the sponsor fair, and a keynote speech.
The Harker Programming Invitational invites high school students across the Bay Area and Harker to compete in algorithmic-style programming competitions. Last year, 44 teams attended, and the number has nearly doubled this year with 78 teams competing.
“It’s a really involved event with multiple contest rounds and lots of good events to go through to everybody,” Katherine Tian (11) said. “This year the registration just exploded. I’m excited to see how the competition will pan out with just so many more people.”
The Harker Programming Invitational is based off of Stanford ProCo, a larger programming contest in which students compete in either the novice or the advanced division. In preparation for the event, club officers created problem sets that the teams solved during the two hour time period. The problem writers coded difficult algorithmic-based questions for the contestants.
“The HPI was fun, lively, and it was challenging for everybody involved. All the way from the programmers to the officers that were running the contest. I think it was a success,” club advisor Susan King said.
Students are divided into teams of two or three and solve problems within a two-hour time limit. The Harker Programming Invitational invited high school students across the Bay Area and Harker to compete in algorithmic-style programming competitions.
“The event was good. Working in the team was my favorite part. It was great. I had fun because I don’t normally work in teams,” William Penn, a competitor from BASIS Independent School said.
The Harker Programing Invitational also hosted talks from sponsors, which mainly consisted of speakers from startup companies and universities like IBM and Carnegie Mellon University. In addition, the club invited a keynote speaker, engineering director Jeremy Doig from Youtube and Google Virtual Reality, who discussed his technical experiences at Youtube.
“It’s kind of a mix of what a big company is doing, as well as technical programming aspects of it,” Katherine Tian said. “He can give a really inspiring speech with also a lot technical information because they’re just really talented people in programing.”
Out of the 78 teams, Lynbrook was the winner in the Novice division and Alpha Star Academy was the winner in the Advanced division.
This piece was originally published in the pages of the Winged Post on March 29, 2018.
