Communications of the ACM
Student-Run Hackathons se ncommon Approaches to Educate and Inspire
Students brainstorm app designs at a hackathon for middle-school girls organized by compileHer, a University of Chicago student group.
Credit: Delia Ierugan / University of Chicago
A hackathon organized by student groups at the University of Chicago helped introduce middle-school girls to app design and tech careers, and challenged more seasoned coders to use their talents in "uncommon" ways.
In January, a UChicago student organization called compileHer gathered 70 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students from 50 schools across Chicago for an all-day hackathon. The group adopted the hackathon format to emphasize the importance of human-centered, accessible design in the creation of technology products.
The event was thus designed to cater to students from different educational backgrounds, and encouraged them to brainstorm app ideas and map their vision out with pen and paper.
"These girls are fantastic artists, fantastic problem-solvers, and they clearly have all these really meaningful ideas on how to help the people in their lives. We wanted to use this event to show them that you don't have to give up these existing passions to be able to succeed as a computer scientist," says third-year student Devshi Mehrotra, co-director of compileHer. "You bring all that you are and all that you've learned in your life to this field and enrich it."
From University of Chicago
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