An inclusive all-women & non-binary hackathon.

February 10-11, 2023

Applications for FemmeHacks 2023 open now!

About FemmeHacks

What is FemmeHacks?

Now running on our 9th year, FemmeHacks is a two-day collegiate hackathon hosted at the University of Pennsylvania by the university’s Women in Computer Science chapter. FemmeHacks aims to empower, educate, and inspire women and non-binary folks across the nation. After forming teams, attendees build a variety of web, mobile, and hardware applications, learn from workshops, and attend various speaker events. This year, FemmeHacks will be back in-person!

Who can attend?

FemmeHacks welcomes trans and cis women, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people of all levels of experience – equality for all! Participants range from students from a variety of schools such as University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Drexel, Rutgers, Bryn Mawr, Villanova, Temple, Haverford, as well as young talents from Philadelphia high schools looking to break into the tech field. Last year, we had over 300 attendees!

Why attend FemmeHacks?

FemmeHacks is committed to education — we’ve hosted workshops on all sorts of topics, including GitHub, web development, iOS development and computer graphics. FemmeHacks also gives attendees the opportunity to connect with other women and non-binary people in the general tech community. Last year, over 87% of our attendees said they made at least one valuable connection with a fellow student or mentor! We also have free swag for all attendees and company-sponsored prizes for hackathon winners.

2023 Schedule
All the meeting locations are available on our Airtable -- please check the Event Location section in the acceptance email to find the Airtable link! All times are in Eastern Standard Time (EST).

February 10 (Friday)

4:00pm - 6:00pm: Check-in
4:00pm - 5:00pm: Self-intro & Team Formation
5:00pm - 5:30pm: Opening Ceremony
5:30pm - 6:00pm: Dinner
6:00pm - 6:45pm: Beginner Workshop Intro to Web Dev Pt. 1
6:00pm - 6:45pm: Intermediate Workshop Intro to UI/UX
7:00pm - 7:45pm: Beginner Workshop Intro to Web Dev Pt. 2
7:30pm - 8:30pm: Intermediate Workshop Intro to iOS
8:00pm - 8:45pm: Beginner Workshop Intro to Git
8:00pm - 9:00pm: Beginner Workshop Machine Learning
9:00pm - 9:30pm: Team Formation & Speed Dating
9:30pm - 10:30pm: Game Night!!
February 11 (Saturday)

7:30am - 8:00am: Breakfast
8:00am: Hacking Starts
8:00am - 9:30am: Office Hours – Ideation
10:30am - 12:00pm: PM Talk
12:30pm - 1:30pm: Lunch
1:00pm - 2:30pm: PhD Talk
3:30pm - 4:30pm: Internship Panel
4:00pm - 5:30pm: Skribble
6:00pm - 7:00pm: Dinner
6:00pm - 8:00pm: Office Hours
8:00pm: Hacking Stops
8:00pm - 8:30pm: Submission Time
8:30pm: Devpost Submission Deadline
8:30pm - 9:10pm: Demo Fair
9:40pm: Closing Ceremony

Frequently Asked Questions

If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to email pennfemmehacks@gmail.com!

General

What is FemmeHacks?

FemmeHacks is a 2-day long event for women, non-binary folks, and historically underrepresented groups to form teams, brainstorm an idea, and build it into execution.

When and where will FemmeHacks be?

This year, FemmeHacks will take place on February 10th-11th, 2023. We look forward to seeing all of you back in-person on Penn campus this year!

What kinds of projects have past attendees made?

Past attendees have made all sorts of web, mobile, and hardware applications. View projects that our attendees have built here!

Will there be swag or prizes?

Yes, there will be swag handed out at the event!

Who should I contact if I have more questions?

Please write to us at pennfemmehacks@gmail.com. We’re happy to help.

Registration

Who can attend FemmeHacks?

Any women-identifying or non-binary folk can attend FemmeHacks.

How can I register?

When do I need to register by?

Registrations will be considered on a rolling basis until February 3th, 2023. After then, we will only consider applications if we have the capacity for more hackers.

Does FemmeHacks cost money to attend?

Nope — attending FemmeHacks is completely free.

I don't have that much/any coding experience. Should I still register?

Absolutely. FemmeHacks is specificlaly made to be beginner-friendly – plenty of our previous hackers have come in without any coding knowledge. We host plenty of beginner-friendly workshops, such as Introduction to Web Development (HTML/CSS) and Introduction to Python, to teach our hackers coding from scratch. We also have plenty of mentors to help you during the hackathon itself.

I don’t have a team/idea. Should I still register?

Yes! We’ll have team formation and ideation workshops to help you find great people to work with on an idea that excites you. Many past attendees have formed teams or brainstormed ideas during the hackathon – we encourage you to register regardless!