Education

Hack for Humanity | March 20-21, 2021 | Registration Now Open

Organized by the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies, Hack for Humanity is an annual humanitarian focused hackathon at Brown University that brings together students to learn about the most pressing needs in the human rights and humanitarian sphere and develop creative ideas for innovative programs or technologies that could help improve the lives of disaster and conflict affected communities around the world.

Hack for Humanity 2021 | COVID-19 and the Next Pandemic: Improving Preparedness, Response, and Inclusivity

This year's hackathon will focus on how to better respond to pandemics and their associated far reaching societal impacts. Registered teams of students will work together virtually over the course of two days to develop creative ideas for innovative programs, systems, or technologies that could improve how we plan for and respond to pandemics. While your team has the flexibility to address any area that is applicable to the overarching topic of pandemic preparedness, response, and inclusivity, we have provided a list of potential sub-topics that you could draw from to narrow your focus. It will also be important that your team recognize the below listed cross cutting issues as you work towards developing your project pitch.

Potential Sub-Topics to Consider

These listed sub-topics have been provided to help your team get started in identifying a focus area to address. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it gives an indication of the wide-ranging impact pandemics have on society. Your team is welcomed to focus your efforts on one of these themes or identify another area all together that is applicable to the overarching topic of pandemic preparedness, response, and inclusivity.

Public Health

Approaches to vaccination and vaccine uptake, clinical care, diagnostic testing, infection prevention and control (including PPE), mental health, contact tracing/health surveillance, risk communication, and community education

Human Security

Livelihoods; food security; education; and housing

Human Rights

Access to justice; safe elections; privacy; and documentation of human rights violations

Violence and Abuse

Preventing gender-based violence, domestic violence, child abuse, and elder abuse

Cross-Cutting Issues

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare many cross-cutting societal issues centered around inclusivity. We ask that your team take these following issues into consideration as you work on your project pitch.

Cross-Cutting Issues

Inclusivity of racial and ethnic minorities, indigenous people, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, people living with HIV/AIDS, elderly, urban populations, incarcerated populations, migrants and displaced people

Program Schedule

The following Program Schedule is currently in a draft state. Please note that it is subject to change. The program will be finalized over the course of the next month.

Keynote Speaker

The Hackathon will kick off with a keynote speaker address on March 20. More information coming soon!

Mentorship

A key component of this event is mentorship. To help ensure that participating teams are developing relevant, culturally appropriate, and grounded ideas that could be feasibly implemented, we will have a group of experienced mentors present during the event to help guide teams and answer questions. Over the course of the hackathon, your team will have the ability to meet virtually with mentors in order to help gain a better understanding of the core issues associated with your topic. We will be selecting mentors so as to have a wide range of expertise on hand to answer questions, provide in-depth context, and help guide your ideas to “real-world” relevance. We encourage you to make use of this valuable resource!

Resource Guide

We will be providing all particiapnts with a useful resource guide to assist your teams through the entire hackathon process - from problem identification to thinking about project implementation. We will also be providing a list of preliminary resources associated with pandemic preparedness and response to help you begin exploritory research on your topic. While these provided resources will be a good start, we also encourage your team to conduct your own searches for resources that may be relevant to your specific projects.

Pitch Presentations and Awards

On the second day of the hackathon, all participating teams will have the opportunity to present their pitches to a panel of judges, who will evaluate each team's pitch on the basis of originality, respect to individuals and communities, context, feasibility, impact, sustainability, and partnerships. Following all presentations, the panel will announce the top 3 teams who will then have the opportunity to submit a formal project proposal to be considered for seed funding.