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Despite a significant snowstorm, organizers of an ATLAS student-run hackathon, T9Hacks, once again reached their goals of increasing participants and attracting a majority of women to the creative coding marathon.
Led by ATLAS doctoral student Brittany Kos, this year's T9Hacks drew more than 130 participants,听70 percent of them female and non-binary, with 65 percent of the participants first-time hackers. In 2017, 110 people attended, with 60 percent of participants听women/nonbinary.
The 24-hour event, which began Feb.听10, is geared toward college students and recent college grads, especially women, non-binary听and transgender students鈥攖he 鈥淭9鈥� stands for 鈥淭itle IX,鈥� a U.S. amendment that prohibits gender-based discrimination in educational settings. 听In general, Hackathons鈥攎arathon creative coding and making events鈥攁re mostly attended by men, with female-to-male ratios often as low听as 1 to 15.
For some, T9Hacks was an opportunity to attend their first hackathon, for others, it was a chance to venture out and try new technology for the first time. Teams of participants completed projects in three areas; cybersecurity, creative tech and tech for social impact. Workshops were available for beginners and mentors were available throughout to consult and support participants.
Working in teams, participants programmed and built creative software projects ranging from Happy Ivy, an app that encourages people with bipolar disorder to finish their tasks, to PeekPeak, an app that helps users save money听by reducing utility usage听during peak periods.
This year's winners and project descriptions can be found on听, with special recognition from T9Hack's听organizers for听these projects:听, by Tatiana Blanco and Vi Nguyen, an autonomous aquaponics system which听allows听users to grow听food with a minimum听amount of effort and cost;听听by Carl Cortright and Shubha Swamy, a听data visualization tool that maps crime locations within Boulder; and 听by Cassandra Goodby and Ryan Craig,听an听emergency WIFI system that can be set up quickly and easily.
In addition to lead sponsorship from ATLAS, the event received major support from Workday, Zayo Group, Google,听SketchUp and听 MD5. Circadence, Major League Hacking, 彩民宝典's College of Engineering and Applied Science, TechChange and the National Center for Women & Information Technology also provided sponsorship.
For those who missed T9Hacks听and those attendees who didn't get enough, don't despair; T9Hacks happens again听next fall. Those interested in joining the planning team should visit the .听