Four schools from across the nation gathered at Busan Foreign School (BFS) for Scrapyard, a quirky hackathon, on March 15. Alongside over 30 creative programmers, sophomores Justin Son, Oliver Park, Yujun Piao, and senior Tommy Jang from the DIS Computer Science Competition Club, named Team “팔공80년산 (Palgong 80 Years Mountain),” presented Senioritis Chrome Extension team and bagged the Organizers’ Pick Award. 

Unlike traditional hackathons, Scrapyard celebrates creativity over practicality and encourages coders to build quirky, ‘stupid’ projects. For this competition, the weirder the invention, the better. 

On day one, the DIS coders set their hearts on a Chrome Extension that promotes senioritis, a colloquial name for high school seniors who lose motivation to study. Son said, “Our idea of a Senioritis Google extension fits perfectly with the theme of Scrapyard—building stupid things.” 

The extension blocks Google productivity tools and opens social media – a dancing Mark Zuckerberg image that crashes Chrome when clicked. Piao also threw in a mischievously moving “Turn It In” button code. “We effectively discovered how to distract and deprive students’ attention,” said Son, who also implemented a deceptive “Focus Mode.”

After long hours of programming, students participated in two workshops led by computer science mentors: Building with Arduino and a Lecture on Internet of Things (IoT) by Dr. Jaehoon Jeong from Sungkyunkwan University. From innovative Arduino projects to insightful information on IoT, the students enjoyed the informative sessions provided. 

On day two, teams showcased their hilarious and clever inventions. The participants also selected the Top 3 teams through peer voting. Students voted for their top two favorite projects. 

An ISB sophomore demoed a painting software that is really, really bad at painting. “My design teacher introduced me to Scrapyard,” Anton said. “I’ve always loved coding, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity.”

Besides international school students, the event also welcomed participants from specialized tech-focused high schools. Two students—one from Busan Software Meister High School and the other from Seoul Digitech High School—collaborated on an ironic invention: the Reverse Alarm Clock that rings only when the user is not in bed and stops when shouted at. 

The system utilizes voice volume as an input and measures sound levels to determine whether the user stays alert enough to interact with it. “It’s an alarm that needs to be woken up by us,” the team said. Their hilarious project perfectly captured the experimental spirit of Scrapyard, earning them second place. 

Three Surlin Internet High School students impressed the crowd with their bizarre yet technical creation: a real-life Kirby, the Nintendo character that spits out everything it eats. Their prototype could suck in water and comically spray it back out, staying faithful to the beloved video game character’s iconic behavior. Their project bagged first place.

The “Senioritis Chrome Extension” was recognized with the Organizers’ Pick Award, a distinction given to the team by the judges. Tommy Jang said, “We thought we would definitely win the Organizer’s Pick because the professor was very satisfied with our project.”

From reverse alarm clocks to interactive Kirby-inspired machines, the competition concluded with valuable experiences and new connections. Scrapyard offered the Jets a unique opportunity to explore unconventional ideas in a collaborative and stimulating environment as they look forward to more inventions in the coming years.

Try the Senioritis Chrome Extension here.