Long before working on NASA's ASTHROS mission, building a school-bus-sized telescope carried by a football-stadium-sized balloon, Dr. Paul Horton's passion for technology was ignited in a high school engineering class. They learned Python and then used that new skill to program Arduinos: “From that point on, I wanted to figure out how to integrate code into everything I do.” They are now living that lightbulb moment on the daily - the only difference now is the scale. Over the past decade, their involvement with hackathons has evolved seamlessly from hackathon attendee and event founder to mentor, organizer, and MLH Coach, translating small circuits into cosmic discoveries.