Koggethon attracts young programmers to the museum for one night

A special kind of "night at the museum": for the fourth time, the laptop covers were opened after dark in the cog hall of the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven. For this year's Koggethon, 65 computer science enthusiasts gathered to programme and try out new things together until the early hours of the morning. This year's event was once again organised by students and lecturers from the Computer Science and Business Informatics courses at Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences.

Working together on a given task is normally the purpose of a hackathon. The university's Koggethon takes a slightly different approach. "Although the main topic of this year's 'Long Night of Computer Science' was 3D programming for web applications, the students had also prepared their own ideas, such as programming with Java or a challenge on IT security. "There was a whole marketplace of prepared projects. The participants were therefore able to choose what they would like to work on. It was also possible to change groups during this time," says Prof. Dr Karin Vosseberg, who teaches on the Computer Science degree programme and organised the Koggethon together with the students and their colleagues. 

Another special feature of the event is the maritime reference. The Bremen cog, which has been on display in the German Maritime Museum since it was salvaged at the beginning of the 1960s, can be found in most of the participants' mini-projects. For example, one group set out to develop a cog quiz based on a web application. Another programmed a ship model in 3D and used this as the basis for a game idea. Other projects included a digital map of the Hanseatic cities and a digital "break-in" into the Juice Shop, a challenge on the OWASP learning platform. "One of the more elaborate projects was a jump'n run game through a 3D world. Their game idea was to jump from 3D to 2D when a path was blocked. "Of course, not everything worked out in the end because the group actually needed more time. But the groups had a lot of fun and that was the main thing," says Prof Vosseberg. 

The "Koggethon" originated from a student digitisation project in cooperation with the German Maritime Museum in 2017. The computer science lecturers came up with the idea of organising a hackathon that would fit in thematically with the "University by the Sea". Anyone who enjoys programming was invited to take part. Even back then, they worked with the model of a cog. The annual "Long Night of Computer Science" has since established itself and is in great demand: while forty people took part in the last "Koggethon" in 2019, there were eighty registrations this year. "We were actually expecting some of them to drop out. So we were all the more pleased that so many came in the end," says Prof Vosseberg. In addition to students, pupils and two teachers also took part in the event. "The atmosphere is always very nice. The rooms are semi-dark and it's very quiet, apart from a little laughter here and there. Everyone is focussed. It's a very special atmosphere," continues Prof Vosseberg.

The "Koggethon" ended with a joint breakfast and the presentation of the results. 48 computer science enthusiasts stayed up until the morning and worked on their projects. For the organisers, the event was a success: "It was a lot of fun and the time flew by. We're already looking forward to next year."