A national group called Pilot plans a free, all-day hackathon at Jesuit High School this month to help boost interest in computer science education, joined by several mentors from event sponsor Intel.

PilotPDX is a free, 12-hour event open to any high school student. The hackathon sorts students into teams to conjure ideas, then collaborate in bringing those ideas to fruition and showing off the result. The event begins at 9:30 a.m. on April 26 and includes lunch, a snack and dinner. It wraps up at 9 p.m.

Jesuit High School junior Charvi Bhargava initiated the Portland event after learning about a Pilot program in Philadelphia.

"I first heard about PilotPhilly since my sister goes to UPenn, and I was instantly interested in it and thought it would be super cool to bring that to the West Coast. So I looked around the gopilot.org website and PilotPhilly and saw that these events that seemed like a lot of fun," she wrote. "I hadn't heard of anything like it in Oregon yet, so I saw it as the perfect opportunity to start up something great here."

Participants needn't have prior software experience, but they do need to register in advance. Find more information at pdx.gopilot.org.

-- Mike Rogoway; twitter: @rogoway; 503-294-7699