Academic Centre
The Raccoons is a 48-hour hackathon that empowers students who are eager to learn by providing an environment for them to explore, build, and create. Around 100 students will gather to learn more about technology and explore the realms of science and creativity. The event, based on the international student hackathon Major League Hacking format, is aimed at students with any level of experience and tries to foster an environment for curiosity towards tech and exploration by offering workshops and mentors on the spot, teaching the basics of coding and technology.
“Student hackathons in particular are a movement that has been only growing, however, there hasn't been one in the region, so we decided to create one of our own,” says one of the hackathon organizers and herself a coder Lina Marta Sarma.
The Raccoons is organised by representatives of Latvian tech ecosystem, partnering with student and startup non-governmental organizations, including TechChill, TechHub Riga, Latvian Startup association, Riga TechGirls, Visas Iespējas, GameDev, Student Union of the University of Latvia and others.
Organizers will provide a platform to connect and empower students to brainstorm, build and validate new or existing ideas, for example, creating digital art, computer games, build websites, applications, data visualizations, and more. The participants will be challenged to offer ideas and build projects in the field of creative coding, open-source, use of domain name and data visualization, or just build an individual project outside of any track
Participants will have a chance to attend workshops during the event on Creative Coding with P5.JS, Design Thinking/UI, Intro to Github, Basics of HTML/CSS, and Servers 101. The content of all workshops will be suited to beginners and held by developers and entrepreneurs, who will bring their experience from different fields of coding. Mentor roaster includes Janis Vegis, Founder of Finch, Austris Cirulnieks, Software Engineer at Alta Flora & Engineering Student at Aalto University, Aiva Stanevica, Senator at Latvian University, Emils Syundyukov, Co-founder at Koatum, Elvis Strazdins, Board Member at GameDev & Engineer at Sonarworks, and more to join.
The Raccoons hackathon is open to all students aged 18-25, from any country, and regardless of skills and background. Working language of the hackathon will be English. Hackathon is free of charge. The Raccoons will be held in Riga, Latvia on March 27-29. Registration is open until March 15 or until reaching the limit of application: www.theraccoons.org
 skills are becoming essential not only in IT, but in almost any profession. Ambitious students willing to learn new skills and coding basics are invited to take part in the international hackathon The Raccoons, taking place in Riga, University of Latvia House of Science, on March 27-29.){kind=link}