We are humbled and inspired by the power of technology to do good and, if unchecked, to do harm. We'd like to gather students to engage in responsible and ethical creation to foster change in our communities. Specifically, the Civic Tech Hackathon gives students the opportunity to solve problems in government, education, and policy through software engineering and coding. Any student that has an intersection of programming and social justice, may participate.

There will be three main tracks to compete under: education, election turnout, and government policy. At the end, a team will be prized as an overall winner while each category will have their own corresponding winners. 

Our schedule is as follows:

February 25, 2023

Morning

8:00   Registration opens in big room

·        Negative COVID test

·        Name/school/registration confirmation

·        Wrist band is given w/ different colors  / sticker on name tag/ wristband

·        Breakfast is served + socializing 

·        Yogurt; Packaged Pastries; Fruit; Bottled Juice?  

9:00    Opening session 

·        What is Civic Tech and PIT-UN?

·        Keynote Speaker 

·        Project Overview

·        Prompts – education; government policy; social justice

·        Featured technologies

·        Overview of agenda / how to find it 

·        Projects deadline

·        Introduce judges

·        Introduce teams 

11:00  Breakout session

·        Team formation session! (5 students, 25 teams)

·        Meet with your group 

·        Start developing/planning 

·        Each team has a mentor who will meet with the at this team

·        Each team needs a table, each table needs to be marked

·        Hacking begins

Afternoon

12:00 - 2:00 Lunch

·        Mingling 

·        Prizes 

1:00   Developing + Workshops

·        Professional Development Workshops 

1:00 - 2:00 Resume Workshop 

2:00 - 3:00 AI/ML Workshop

3:00 - 4:00 Tech +DEI Workshop 

4:00 - 5:00 Product Development 

5:00 - 6:00 Git Workshop 

6:00 - 7:00 Civic Engagement Workshop 

·        Recreational Activities 

1:00 - 2:00 Yoga  

3:00 - 4:00 VR Workshop 

          6:00 - 7:00 Dance

Evening 

7:00 - 8:00     Evening Session 

1.     Rules of Hackathon

2.     Reminder of events of the evening and next day / project deadline Dinner

3.     Bonding activity for attendees

4.     Internship panel

5.     Encourages people to keep going with the projects!

8:00 - 10:00   Dinner

9:00 - 11:00   Team Tournaments

9:00-11:00 Academic bowl / Jeopardy

9:00 - 11:00 Minute to win it

11:00 Sleeping spaces open

·        Accommodations (pillows and blankets)

February 26, 2023

Morning 

12:00 Midnight Snacks + Karaoke  

8:00 - 10:00  HOT BREAKFAST  is served 

9:00    Project Submission Deadline 

10:30 -12:30 Demonstrations of projects (7 min per team)

Afternoon

1:00    Lunch + Judge Deliberations

2:00   Closing Ceremony 

·        Winners Announced

·        Short Introduction of Civic Tech Hackathon mission / vision

·        Judges announce winners based on rubrics

·        Give out prizes 

·        Students dismissed

3:00 Leave

• Judging Category #1: Product-Need Fit
  How clearly is the solution aligned with the broader problem statements? Does the Solution address the user need as presented by the students? Is there a unique value proposition or differentiated feature embedded in the product *vision* presented.
• Judging Category #2: Quality of Idea/ Potential Impact
  Does the project have the potential for deep or broad impact (does the solution cater to a narrow user base or impact a large number of people)? How easy is it to implement the solution? To what magnitude will this technology have an impact.
• Judging Category #3: Technical Execution
  Did the team deliver a high-quality working product? Is the product quality high? Is the code quality high? Teams that take on more difficult technical tasks and solve them should also be given a higher score.
• Judging Category #4: Design
  The user experience is intuitive; it's clear how to achieve the goals that the solution is designed for and the user flow is obvious. The user interaction and visual design is well defined and no sections are left undeveloped.
• Judging Category #5: Presentation
  Effectively communicate the problem, idea, purpose, and impact of the project in a clear and engaging way. Captures the audience's attention and leaves them with a clear understanding of the idea and its potential impact