More than 500 students from around the country will fill the Business Building for HackPSU‘s ninth ‘hackathon’ in five years April 8-9. The 24-hour event will challenge students at all engineering and experience levels to build the most impressive hardware or software project in the limited time provided.

HackPSU is a completely free competition and is advertised as a “beginner-friendly” event, so anyone can attend regardless of coding experience. The competition is designed to provide students with workshops to educate beginners and to strengthen the coding abilities of experienced programmers. The workshops topics will include cutting edge technical options like virtual reality, artificial intelligence, node.js, data analysis, robotics, 3D printing, and non-technical subjects like entrepreneurship and marketing.

“HackPSU is for everyone,” Director of HackPSU Smith Sopp said. “We encourage students of all skill sets to come, even if they have never programmed before. As long as you learn something the hackathon is a success.”

Several prizes will be awarded throughout the event, including a grand prize of $500.

“We love to see people with diverse backgrounds at our event. Hackathons are multidisciplinary events, and all students are welcomed,” Former Director of HackPSU Jen Platt said. “Don’t be afraid to get out of your comfort zone, or think you aren’t skilled enough. Everyone has a place here.”

You can register for HackPSU here. Check-in will begin at 10 a.m. on April 8 in the Business Building and the hackathon will run from noon Saturday to noon Sunday.