![“[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)
Programming Club hosts annual Harker Programming Invitational with ‘Space & CS’ theme
Eighth-grader Tiffany Zhu listens to the panel event during the Harker Programming Invitational (HPI) on Mar. 13. Middle and high school students participated in HPI virtually.
March 25, 2022
The Harker Programming Club hosted the annual Harker Programming Invitational (HPI) on March 13.
The event consisted of a two-hour-long algorithmic coding contest followed by a presentation by Dr. John Bresina, the Senior Research Computer Scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center, and panel session. Similar to last year’s contest and this year’s Girls Programming League Challenge, which was also organized by the Programming Club, the HPI was held virtually due to the pandemic.
Over 150 students from across the country attended HPI, which had the theme “Computer Science and Space,” and competed in either the Novice or Advanced Divisions. The competitors worked in predetermined groups of up to three people to attempt to solve a total of 10 questions written by Programming Club officers. Following the main contest portion of HPI, participants attended a keynote speaker event with Dr. Bresina, who discussed the NASA projects he had worked on. In the afternoon, a panel of three professional scientists: Dr. Jane Bae, Assistant Professor of Aerospace at the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories at Caltech; Dr. Eugene Tu, Center Director at NASA’s Ames and Dr. Eric Nelson, upper school computer science and physics teacher, discussed questions regarding the fields of computer science and space.
“[The panel] hosted a very interesting discussion about the broad field of space and computer science,” Programming Club co-president Alexa Lowe (12) said. “They talked about the future of it and how computer science will help space exploration and how also space exploration will drive computer science.”
Programming Club has been organizing HPI for the past few months. The officers were divided into two teams, with one focused on the backend part of the contest, which includes problem writing and platform testing, and the other focused on the frontend, which includes inviting speakers and advertising.
“I hope they [had] fun coding questions with their friends and that they [learned] something new,” Alexa said. “For the speaker events, I hope they [broadened] their view on what computer science does in the world, and I hope they [found] it interesting to hear about experts in different fields and to hear about their journeys.”
