The 3rd Annual Austin Diversity Hackathon Assembles a New & Diverse Generation of Coders

Praxent is proud to sponsor this year’s 3rd Annual Austin Diversity Hackathon hosted by Women Who Code Austin. Open to participants of all backgrounds and technical skill-levels, this weekend-long event is a celebration of diversity in technology.

What is a hackathon?

It’s an opportunity to refine coding skills and acquire new ones in a collaborative, experimental environment.

Geared toward enhancing the learning process, hackathons allow coders to bring to life exciting, innovative, or even crazy ideas for apps and other tech products in the presence of supportive community.

>> Check out these two mind-blowing Praxent hackathon projects and the innovative spirit that brought them to life.

Our very own Holly Gibson, Executive Director of Women Who Code Austin, helped launch the very first Austin Diversity Hackathon in 2014 with her co-director, Sara Inés Calderón, as a way for beginners to learn coding and application design in a pressure-free environment (while having fun and eating tacos).

In its very first year, Austin Diversity Hackathon attracted a whopping 80 participants. That number went straight up to 150 the second year. This year, Women Who Code is expecting an estimated 200 participants to come out for the event in celebration of diversity, creativity, and technology.

Austin Diversity Hackathon welcomes crowds of first-time hackathon participants, 60% of whom are people of color and 70% of whom are women.

When asked about this year’s Austin Diversity Hackathon, Holly exudes enthusiasm for the event’s top-notch educational content: “This year I am so excited for our line-up of free workshops! We have the IBM design team leading a design-thinking class. My fellow Praxent experts are leading Intro to Coding classes, and a select handful of local developers will be mentoring and leading other technical workshops.

It’s going to be awesome! I get so pumped up seeing our Austin tech community rally together to inspire a new generation of coders.”

The three-day event culminates in an awards show on Sunday, the 17th. Hackathon prize categories include:

Best UI/UX

This prize is awarded to the most intuitive apps with the cleanest design and branding.

Most Social Impact

Judging criteria includes the reach of the app, who will use it and how it will affect them.

Most Technical

Judges look at what APIs, data storage, backend, and frontend technologies were used to build the app.

Most Learned

This prize goes to teams who overcame significant obstacles. Winners may begin with zero knowledge and move on to successfully deploy their app.

Event Information

The 3rd Annual Austin Diversity Hackathon
When: September 15-17
Where: Capital Factory

Register as a volunteer or participant for the event on the 3rd Annual Austin Diversity Hackathon Eventbrite page. Participation is free of charge.

Check out the ATX Diversity Hackathon Facebook page for more information and a peek at last year’s projects!

About Women Who Code

Women Who Code is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring women to excel in technology careers by creating a global, connected community of women in technology. The organization tripled in 2014 and has grown to be one of the largest communities of women engineers in the world with a global membership of 100,000+.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]