SEPTEMBER 24, 2025 – Soldiers and Civilians from Fort George G. Meade hosted the first of three Hackathon events to encourage teen interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) at the Odenton Regional Library, Anne Arundel County Public Library, September 22.
The next Hackathon events are on October 7 and November 4, from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Odenton Regional Library. Registration is open now for the October event on the AACPL website at https://www.aacpl.net/event/hackathon-200197.
This is the fifth year the 780th Military Intelligence Brigade (Cyber) is hosting Hackathon and at the event young people can compete in a CTF (capture-the-flag) where participants search for flags, using a variety of techniques including reverse engineering, decryption, netcat, and ssh keys; and at the four other stations, completing those challenges contributes to their overall CTF score.
Those stations include: a Basic Python table where participants complete python programming challenges; a Publicly Available Information (PAI) table where participants appreciate the perils of posting personal information online and learn techniques for browsing publicly available information; a Logic Games table where participants practice binary number systems, modulo operations, and Boolean algebra; and there is also a Locksport and ham radio table hosted by the Maryland Mobileers Amateur Radio Club.
Young people focus on learning and practicing the art of defeating locking mechanisms at the Locksport table, and volunteers from the Maryland Mobileers Amateur Radio Club have hands on equipment to spark particiant’s curiosity in wireless communication and amateur radio.
For other attendees, including cybersecurity job seekers, college students, and parents of the participants, the civilian personnel officer for the 780th MI Brigade is there to discuss job opportunities and the hiring process for government civilians. There is no requirement to register for this opportunity.
Although a relatively small event, since the library caps registration at 25, the volunteers have never turned away a walk-in participant, and young people will benefit from this personalized event.
There are prizes for the 1st and 2d place finishers in the Capture-the-Flag event, and other items are given out at each station for each Hackathon participant.
The Hackathon event on September 22 included 17 of the 21 young people who registered to attend, there were four walk-in participants, and several parents either served as a mentor or participated in the challenges.
Although the 780th MI Brigade hosted and planned the event there were volunteers representing the U.S. Army 7th Signal Command (Theater), Defense Information Systems Agency, and the Cyber National Mission Force.
Story by Steven Stover
780th Military Intelligence Brigade (Cyber)