She Sharp Hackathon is an all-female-led and non-binary 32 hour hackathon, which aims to help individuals to understand they belong in tech and that there are various roles you can have in the tech industry. Do you have a passion to save the planet, starting in our backyard? We’re bringing to life practical examples from the AI Forum’s recently published AI for Environment in Aotearoa New Zealand report. 

Join 60+ people for a weekend of learning, building, and connecting to build your tech skills and realise that you have allies who are supporting you every step of the way.

WHY DO WE NEED A FEMALE LED HACKATHON?

Women are under-represented in the tech world, and it’s important to us to change that! In conjunction with AI Forum we are creating a welcoming learning environment to demonstrate that there is a place in tech for every female. You’ll have the chance to build cool and innovative projects that focus on AI for the environment. 

DO I NEED ANY EXPERIENCE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE TO PARTICIPATE?

People of all skill levels are encouraged to attend, even if you’ve never written a line of code. There are different types of roles you can play in a Hackathon, design, technical, customer centric or business focused. There will be plenty of women here to mentor and support you on the journey experienced hackers.

WHAT WILL I NEED?

A bunch of enthusiasm, ideas and team spirit. Please bring your own computer and charger or preferred digital devices t it is recommended to use a laptop or tablet.

HOW DO I PARTICIPATE?

You can come solo or with a team. A team will consist of (maximum of 5 people), it helps if you have diverse members in the team (these can be designers, UI/UX, product people, software or data engineers, data scientist or business focussed/non technical). If you don’t already have a team thats ok too, everyone is encouraged to come along. Individuals can pitch an idea and then you can vote on what a team/project idea that you would like to join on the day.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

A hackathon is a design & coding sprint where “hackers” (participants) with both technical and non-technical backgrounds come together to build exciting projects. Throughout the hackathon, you will learn many new skills, meet like-minded peers, and network with sponsors and mentors. At the end of the weekend, you will get a chance to demo your project and maybe go home with some prizes! The winning team at the Hack will pitch their solutions at the Summit on 12 September in Auckland, where the overall winners will be announced. 

WHAT IS THE HACK OBJECTIVES WHAT WILL WE BUILD?

• Build a coherent environmental data ecosystem
• Deploy AI alongside other new technologies to enhance environmental data collection.
• Develop a national environmental open data framework
• Consider where and how Mātauranga Māori may be incorporated within government AI systems
• Coordinate the development of standards and best practices for the environmental data management