Five students from Rocky Point High School – Bethanne Basirico, Luke Heller, Om Patel, Zen Pinkenburg and Nathan Watkis – participated in the 2025 High School Hackathon at Stony Brook University.

Hosted by the Stony Brook Office for Research and Innovation, the event included 12 school districts with approximately 80 students in total. The students were tasked with assigned coding challenges to aid them in developing technical skills and applying them to a practical computer program. Teacher Jenessa Eilers organized the trip for Rocky Point and recruited the students. 

“Our students were able to solve matrix transformations using Python and present their solution to a panel of judges,” math/computer science teacher Victoria Fabrizio said. She, along with teacher Christine Kistner, accompanied the students to the university.