Behind cmd-f 2020
The numbers and memories behind Vancouver’s largest all-female* hackathon
What a year it was for cmd-f 2020! Firstly, the nwPlus team worked hard to bring you three countdown events to empower the women* in tech community throughout the year. On March 7–8th, 2020, on International Woman’s Day weekend, cmd-f set out to become the largest and most diverse all-female* hackathon yet. Did we mention that this is only cmd-f’s second year in existence?
* The cmd-f team would like to acknowledge that “female” or “women” is not an accurate description for many people and may make some feel unwelcome. We use * to include cis and trans women, as well as non-binary, agender and intersex people.
“cmd-f has really grown since it started back in March 2019. We introduced the cmd-f Countdown Series with three women* in tech events leading up to our hackathon which nearly doubled in size since last year. It’s crazy to see that we’ve been able to provide learning opportunities for over 400 women* interested in technology just over the past year. I can’t wait to see what cmd-f has in store next!” — Anita Mahinpei, cmd-f Logistics Coordinator
The numbers behind cmd-f 2020:
- 278 female* hackers — almost double the number from 2019!
- 114 mentors, judges, and recruiters
- 61 project submissions
- 47 volunteers
- 38 organizers
- 1 amazing weekend empowering women* in tech 💖
The most diverse hackers at any nwPlus event ever ✨
- 43% first-time hackers
- 45.3% Computer science majors, 5% engineering physics,
and a whopping 49.7% in majors outside of technology such as economics, political science, media science, and biomedical engineering! - 67% UBC, 10.7% BCIT, 7.9% SFU
+ other schools including: University of Waterloo, University of Victoria, Trinity Western University, University of Calgary, Emily Carr School of Design, Thompson Rivers University, Vancouver Community College - 86.3% undergraduates, 6.7% graduates, 4.5% recent graduates, 2.5% high school students
What’s new this cmd-f 2020?
We’re growing bigger! 🙌
As the number of attendees nearly doubled from our first iteration in 2019, it was clear that we needed a new venue, and what better venue could we have than the AMS Nest at UBC! Like the other hackathons that nwPlus hosts, it is evident that hackers work best collaborating in an open and safe space, and the Great Hall served this purpose for cmd-f perfectly. The Great Hall also allowed us to bring in the fair-style demos that we pride ourselves with at nwHacks and UBC Local Hack Day, allowing everybody the chance to showcase their projects to judges and other attendees curious to see what they made in 24 hours.
More diverse workshops? Count me in! 🥊
We were excited to bring a variety of both technical and non-technical workshops to help females* be better equipped to take on the world while having fun. This included various professional development workshops from our sponsors, a Self-Defense workshop by Elements Academy, and even a beginner-friendly a cappella workshop hosted by our very own Anita Tse!
Extra measures taken for COVID-19 🙏
In the days leading up to the big weekend, the nwPlus team kept a close eye on updates on the COVID-19 situation. As UBC had declared the risk as low for Canada, we decided to take preventative measures at cmd-f to ensure the health of our participants. This included mandatory hand washing prior to getting food, placing sanitizer bottles around the venue, wearing gloves, and wiping our surfaces with lysol wipes before and after serving food.
To help bring awareness to the community, Major League Hacking created a new category of COVID-19 Awareness & Prevention Hacks where they will donate $20, for each hack that participates in this category, to those impacted by the COVID-19. The winning project, Hack the Corona is a web app for users to find their nearest drugstore to buy supplies (sanitizer, masks, and toilet paper) or suggest DIY alternatives if there are none available!
Let’s relive the weekend!
Saturday, March 7th, 2020
10:00am: Check-in 🌞
11:00am: The opening ceremony commenced with an inspiring speech by our beloved professor Cinda Heeren 🎤
12:00pm: Hacking + Team Formation begins 🏃♀️
12:30pm: Lunch sponsored by Telus: Banh mi from Ba Le 🥖
1:00–7:00pm: We were delighted to run 7 diverse workshops tackling different aspects of professional development: 👩💻
- Building Negotiation Skills with KPMG
- APIs 101 with Hootsuite
- Resume Roast with Telus
- Skills of the Trade with Scotiabank
- Intro to Prototyping on Figma by our very own Yuki Nishida (UBC UX Hub)
- Self-Defense with Elements Academy
- The Art of Digital Networking — the power of LinkedIn by Yas Azarpajouh
7:30pm: Dinner is served! Yummy pasta from Basil Pasta Bar and sponsored by KPMG 🍝
10:00pm-4:00am (Yep, you read that right): Mini events! Mini events! Mini events! As usual, nwPlus is dedicated to keeping their hackers on their toes and energized throughout the night with an endless supply of activities: 🎉
- Slack contests (Almost every 30 minutes!)
- Slideshow Karaoke hosted by MLH
- Clothing Swap, with extra clothing donated to Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre
- Timbits sponsored by SAP
- Midnight jam sesh hosted by John Song
- 3AM Instant noodles provided by Indomie
- And much more!
Sunday, March 8th, 2020
8:00am: Rise n’ shine, it’s breakfast time: Indomie noodles and buns from Maxim’s Bakery and sponsored by entrepreneurship@UBC. 🍞
12:30pm: Lunch sponsored by Scotiabank: Delicious food from AMS Nest Catering. 🥘 Meanwhile, projects are due at 1:00pm!
1:30pm: Demo time saw 61 project submissions made with love and completed within the 24 hour timeframe.
Check out all of the project submissions on our Devpost!
2:30pm: Our closing ceremonies recognized 12 winning projects, but let’s remember that we are all winners for making it to the end of this hackathon: 🏆
- 1st Place — MoneyBee
- 2nd Place — Stop It
- 3rd Place — Planty
- Telus: “Leverage technology to manage/improve any mental health related issue” — dianthUS
- Scotiabank: “Best Hack for Educating Women Between the Ages 10–15 on Finance “— MoneyBee
- realtor.com: “Build Next Generation Search Experience” — EcoEats
- Kabam: “Best UX/UI Design” — dianthUS
- Safe Software: “Best Community Connector” — Mental Health Space
- SAP: “Empower Women Through Technology” — KYR: Know Your Rights
- Hootsuite: “#SocialForGood Award” — dianthUS
- Lighthouse Labs: “Future of Work Award”— hireHER
- MLH: “COVID-19 Awareness & Prevention Hacks” — Hack The Corona
- MLH: “Best use of Google Cloud” — All About the Dough
- MLH: “Best domain registered with Domain.com” — Soul
- MLH: “Best use of Blockstack”— Finance Hero
“The diversity, confidence and creativity I witnessed over a weekend prove exactly why females* are just as strong and capable in shaping this industry. cmd-f 2020 has blown my mind and I’m so incredibly honoured to have been a part of it. Together, let’s continue supporting women* to pursue their passions in a technology driven world!”— Shu Ting Hu, cmd-f Logistics Coordinator
Thanks for making this special weekend possible!
We can never emphasize this enough, the nwPlus team would like to thank everyone involved for making cmd-f be a space to let women* help other women*, to build confidence and positive STEM identities, and to foster learning:
- Our sponsors for supporting our event, be it from running workshops, providing mentorship, or just letting our hackers have a great time meeting you!
- Alvin and Kelvin from UBC Spotlight, as well as our volunteers Heidi Tang and Andrea Park for capturing memories of the weekend!
- Our volunteers, expo judges, and mentors for taking time out of their weekend to give our hackers a once in a lifetime experience!
- Our panel judges Cinda Heeren, Jelena Furundzic, Jennifer Slegers, and Mahsa Talebpourazad for helping judge our top projects!
- The nwPlus team and everybody else in between, for doing what you do 💖
“cmd-f was started with the values of: women* supporting women*, building confidence, and learning — and I truly believe that cmd-f has continued to uphold them. It’s been a complete honour to have worked on the cmd-f team since the hackathon’s beginnings. I was amazed to see the hackathon grow from 150 hackers to nearly 300 (double the size!). I have faith that even as our hackathon grows larger, we’ll continue to stay faithful to our values, and provide the same level of support and ~~slumber party~~ vibes that we do currently. I can’t wait to see cmd-f become even bigger and better!” — Anlin Chen, cmd-f Logistics Director
Bonus: Check out our recap video!
See you next year! 👋
cmd-f 2020 by nwPlus UBC, Words by
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