CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Students in the UNC computer science and journalism/mass communication schools worked with counterparts at UVA and Maryland to put together a hackathon for college and high school women for this weekend in Chapel Hill.

It’s called Pearl Hacks.

Organizers are sending a bus to pick up students from Maryland and Virginia to drive them to Chapel Hill and back. The keynote speaker is the founding engineer of mint.com and Femgineer, Poornima Vijayashanker.

An estimated 200 high school and college women will work in teams pulling all-nighters to tackle programming projects. There also will be skills training in programming and web development, how to using data and analytics, mobile app development, and soldering and electronics.

Several tech companies have jumped on board as sponsors and/or are sending engineers to serve as coaches and mentors including: Google, Palantir, Microsoft, Red Hat, Cisco, Fidelity, Capital One, Sparkfun, and others.

The goal of the event is to unite female programmers, invigorate their educational journeys, and inspire each other to continue dreaming and achieving amazing things, according to the event website.