Oct 24 – Women’s Hackathon @ Cal State San Marcos

October 08, 2015

The 12-hour semi-annual event is open to all female high school and college students, who will work collaboratively to design a website, game, or mobile app that addresses a selected real world challenge. No prior programming experience is required and registration is free. ​There may be up to 6 people in a team. Prior to the event, teams can plan, storyboard, and determine what they want to do and how they will go about building their solution. The only caveat is that no programming is allowed until the day of the event. ​Projects will be judged in 4 categories: Appropriateness to Theme, User Experience & Functionality, Originality & Impact, and Technical Difficulty.

​We know the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce is crucial to America’s innovative capacity and global competitiveness. Yet women are vastly underrepresented in these fields. The 2009 US Census reveals that although women fill close to half of all jobs in the country’s economy, they hold less than 25 percent of the STEM jobs. This has been the case throughout the past decade, even as college-educated women have increased their share of the overall workforce. We simply must do more to expose young women to the opportunities in STEM fields.

Over 60 female high school and college hackers already registered to participate in the Women’s Hackathon at CSUSM on Saturday, October 24, 2015 – the anticipation is building! We can’t wait to see what these talented girls will create!

We’re looking for great minds to pull off a great event. Are you a software developer or IT pro from a local company/university and want to lead a project team? Come join the fun! Mentors from Qualcomm, Microsoft, Intuit, Sony and more have joined previous Hackathons to help guide girls through story-boarding, project development and delivery. Learn about becoming a mentor and register here.

Project Challenges. Hackers will collaborate on a web site, mobile app or game to develop a solution for one of two civic challenges. Announcing Challenge #1: From Care to College, sponsored by the ACE Scholar Program at CSUSM, which is aimed to encourage and provide support for foster youth to overcome the difficulty in college applications. More details on Challenge #2 coming soon!

If you are inspired to learn more about the semi-annual Women’s Hackathon @ CSUSM you can visit www.sandiegohackathon.com.