Hacktoberfest Hack Day Bethesda x Code & Coffee - Montgomery County, MD Chapter
Join MoCo Code & Coffee for an afternoon hackathon as part of MLH’s Hacktoberfest 2026! This year’s theme is “AI Belongs to Everyone”. Whether you’ve shipped models to production or have never touched one, you’ll leave knowing more about open source AI and you’ll have time to hack on your own project or collaborate with others.
Come solo, bring a team, or find one when you arrive. Beginners are very welcome. We’ll have a short intro workshop, mentors on hand, and plenty of coffee and snacks to keep you going.
Space is limited, so please RSVP early.
Before You Arrive
Build time is short, so a little homework goes a long way:
Check out MLH resources for how to get started with open source models and APIs.
Join the Code & Coffee Discord to brainstorm ideas and find teammates ahead of time. Please follow the welcome instructions to add the DC/MD/VA role, and post questions to the #moco-general channel: https://discord.gg/JbGyY3bKTS
Need inspiration? We’ll share a list of beginner-friendly project ideas on the resource page (coming soon!).
What to Bring
A laptop and charger
Any accounts or API keys you plan to use, already set up
Your development environment ready to go (if you want to run a model locally, consider downloading it at home.)
An idea, or just curiosity
Location
We will be at Bethesda Green. This location is on the second floor of the Capital One Building. Enter the main building as if you are headed to Capital One, then go up the stairs to your right.
PLEASE NOTE: There is no working elevator at this time, stairs only.
4825 Cordell Avenue, Suite 200
Bethesda, Maryland 20814
More details about finding the space here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bCMFlDXsPerKpshNFZa6b7AsOveYw-ol4cjT5brEadw/edit?usp=
The event will be held in the conference room and shared workspaces of Bethesda Green. Light refreshments and snacks will be provided.
Parking
Participants may park on the street or in nearby parking garages.
Public transit
Located near near the Bethesda metro station (Red Line).
Presenting Your Project
Sign up for a time slot at the event. The amount of time you’ll have to present and time for Q&A will depend on the number of sign-ups we have. Your presentation should be to-the-point and cover three things:
What was your idea?
What did you accomplish?
What are your next steps?
Slides and a live demo are welcome but not required.
We encourage you to publish your code openly. That’s what Hacktoberfest is about!
Prizes and Swag
MLH is providing prizes for the challenge categories, plus swag for participants. T-shirts and some other items are limited.
Keep the Momentum Going
About an hour and a half isn’t much build time, so treat this as a starting point! Bring your project to future Code & Coffee meetups to keep working on it with the community. For the rest of October, check out DEV Challenges, MLH livestreams, and Global Hack Week online.
Want to help out? We’re looking for volunteers to staff check-in and mentor participants. Please consider signing up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040D49AFA82DA5FB6-66417791-moco
Reach out with any questions on the Code & Coffee Discord in the #moco-general channel.
Challenges
Best Use of Gemma 4
It’s time to see how much you can build with a lightweight, open model. Gemma 4 packs multimodal intelligence into an open-weights model that you can access through the Gemini API. So, what can Gemma 4 bring to your project?
- Multimodal Experience: Work with text and images to create an assistant that understands more of what users share.
- Focused AI Tools: Build a focused AI tool for learning, creativity, productivity, or your community.
- Rapid Prototyping: Experiment with an open model while using the Gemini API to move quickly from an idea to a working prototype.
Bring your idea to life… what will you build with Gemma 4 today?
Best Open-Source AI Project
Build an original project that uses open-source or open-weight AI as an important part of how it works. Teams could create an agent skill, build with an open-weight large or small language model, or build or adapt an open-source model harness. These are examples within one challenge, and teams may combine them.
Open-source or open-weight AI must be an important part of the project.
The project must be published in a public GitHub repository and use an open-source license.
An agent skill must comply with the Agent Skill Open Standard.
A model-harness entry must include an original implementation or meaningful changes to an existing open-source harness.
Submissions aren’t open for this event.