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HackDuke Asks Programmers To Turn Their Skills to Social Goods

Duke University will bring together college students from around the country this week for HackDuke, an event designed to promote the use of technology for social change.

Open to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as recent grads, the hackathon asks participants to use technology to solve problems in one of three "tracks of impact:" Education, inequality and health and wellness. A team that "best addresses" each track will be selected and awarded $500 to donate to a charity approved by HackDuke, according to information on the event's site.

"All software and hardware hacks that align to" the "tracks for impact" are welcome in the competition, according to information released by the event's organizer's, and there will be "lab space for hardware hackers."

"One of our goals is to bring programmers out of the classroom, past their problem sets, to work on real projects," said Ashley Qian, a Duke student and lead organizer for the event, in a prepared statement. "We want participants to experience learning and risk-taking, and prepare our fellow students for a real world that expects you to learn quickly, work well with groups and communicate well. HackDuke helps programmers practice all of that in a great atmosphere."

In addition to the hackathon, HackDuke will feature a Nerf gun war, a scavenger hunt, and "lots of non-profit mentors and tech sponsor talks," according to the HackDuke site.

More information is available at hackduke.org.

About the Author

Joshua Bolkan is contributing editor for Campus Technology, THE Journal and STEAM Universe. He can be reached at [email protected].

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