24 Hours, 16 Projects, 6 Nonprofits — Hacking with a Purpose
On the weekend of April 8, students from UC Berkeley and Stanford University came together at the Microsoft Reactor space in San Francisco. For 24 hours, more than 70 hackers participated in an intimate, intense hackathon: The Big Hack.
But beyond the traditional rivalry between the schools and a competitive atmosphere, this year’s Big Hack centered around a greater purpose. Focused on social impact in the community, all the teams worked on projects involving social missions, using their technical skills to develop technologies addressing nonprofit needs.
To make this event and its impact possible, Blueprint partnered with Cal Hacks, TreeHacks, and Stanford’s CS+Social Good. Here is a behind-the-scenes look at the Big Hack, with perspectives from our main organizers!
The Initial Spark
How the idea of hacking for social good came to life
The vision driving the Big Hack was simple but key: challenge individuals to think bigger.
Technology can have an incredible amount of impact on nonprofits and, ultimately, people’s lives. But in recent years, hackathons attracting major computer science talent and generating such technology, have placed much of the focus on free swag, food and prizes awarded to attendees.
But they still serve an important purpose, providing an intense working environment pushing people beyond their typical learning boundaries and encouraging them to tackle problems with steep learning curves.
The environment also allows people to learn from each other. Having tangible and impactful projects solidifies their motivations in pursuing the field.
“At the end of the day, hackathon organizers like us put in significant effort and time because we can help instill confidence and a love of learning by providing a supplement to the traditional classroom.
And what is better than channeling all that energy and excitement towards projects that make an impact? The Big Hack really put things in perspective for students and demonstrated the importance of utilizing technology for social good.”
Alice Deng, Operations Director for Blueprint & Organizer for Cal Hacks
Real Problems, Tangible Solutions
Our partners and the visions they carry
The Big Hack’s nonprofit partners: Kiva, Stellar, Quill, Watsi, Somo Project, and Safecity
Each of the nonprofit partners posed a challenge to all the teams, and hackers were free to bring their own ideas to the event as well. Some of the prompts included:
- Making mobile donation-giving interactive for users
- Creating a visualization tool for people without bank accounts to understand expenses
- Enabling nonprofit admins to distribute surveys without internet access
In total, hackers put together 16 different projects that help solve these various problems. Some teams have since collaborated with nonprofits to further work on and refine their initial hacks. Check out all of the submitted projects here!
Execution & Evaluation
What we learned and took away from The Big Hack
Jessica Chiu, Organizer for Cal Hacks
“I think the clearest difference between hosting The Big Hack as opposed to other hackathons was the size. Having a more intimate hackathon made it easier for everyone to get to know one another more.
In terms of impact, The Big Hack differed from others because we already had set problems ahead of time for hackers to work on. As a result, the projects seemed a lot more tangible and sustainable compared to usual hacks.
Navigating through Berkeley, I was always struck by two things:
- how intelligent and talented everyone was, and
- how little interest many people, particularly those studying computer science, seemed to display towards social good as opposed to advancing their own career goals or making lots of money.
However, after experiencing The Big Hack firsthand, I realized that it wasn’t so much of a lack of interest as there were very few spaces to express such an interest in using technology towards social good. After witnessing the results of everyone’s project and being so impressed, I think that we need more events like The Big Hack to push people to explore this interest in social good and technology.”
Kevin Wu, President of Blueprint
“ My biggest takeaway from The Big Hack is that hackathons aren’t solely about the hacks. Even though plenty of them are impressive and plenty of them become something extraordinary after that initial 24-hour spurt, it’s important to realize hackathons have other goals.
For example, a company can hold a hackathon to boost its recruiting efforts and publicity, or a minority rights group can hold a hackathon to promote a specific minority’s involvement in tech. In this way, The Big Hack is ‘more than the sum of its hacks’.
It’s about drawing attention to the synergy between technology and impact — showing people that it’s so easy to make positive change, you can do it overnight.
In that sense, I hope The Big Hack will help me personally see not only the literal effects of my actions, but also the message they send. As for The Big Hack itself, I hope it will inspire other social good hackathons and ultimately more emphasis on the intersection between tech and social good.”
