Minerva’s Hack , an all-women’s Hackathon, was held over the weekend of 25-26 January at the UCL Institute of Child Health. The first of its kind, the event was open to all female undergraduate and masters’ students pursuing STEM subjects in the UK, with the aim of empowering young women in tech by giving them the chance to come together to solve real-world problems through technology.
The hackathon was UCL’s first ever women’s hackathon and received sponsorship from globally renowned companies such as IMC Trading, JP Morgan and Chanel. Across the weekend, there were technical workshops, speakers’ panels and a careers fair, giving participants the opportunity to network with employers and to learn about career opportunities.
A dynamic and pioneering event, I headed over to get some behindthe- scenes insight into why it was organised and what went down.
Sindi Gjonaj and Savani Sawaiker, both third-year Computer Science students at UCL, organised the event after recognising disparities in gender equity between students. The purpose of the hackathon was to have one aimed at only women because, while many universities hold hackathon events, they tend to be mixed, and men often form their own groups or stay in their pre-existing friendship group.
Women, on the other hand, have reported that if they do not have coding experience, they will be unlikely to go, and if they do know how to code, then the likelihood that they will find men wanting to work with them is lower. Therein arises a problem.
In conversation with Sindi, she tells me that, "as a woman, or anyone really, if you know you’re going to be a minority, that makes you reluctant [to get involved]. Teams are important in Hackathons, and hence the numbers of women participating tend to be lower. We wanted to change that by having an event that was open to women all’across the UK, to not have women as the minority in the room."
She adds that there is this idea that women are "only good for tech but in social issues... in stereotypical things like the healthcare industry. As much as everyone in that room does care about that, it shouldn’t just be that."
Sindi also affirmed that she wanted to ensure that the event had reputable sponsors, and that this aspect wasn’t diminished because it was an event aimed solely at women. Tackling gender equity and improving it means having equal access and the same resources. The importance of having networking opportunities they need at the start of their career and to leverage them was also highlighted by her.
The Hackathon began with industry experts talking about their experience navigating careers in STEM. Clémence Jacqueri, Head of People Function at IMC Trading, iterated the power of women in the workplace and made clear that "ladies... you can have it all - you can have kids and a career. You can take a career break, and you can come back and pick up where you left off". She also advised that "throughout your career you have to commit time to continued learning as the world changes so fast. You are the driver of your career... Don’t wait for others to come to you with opportunities."
Participants then got into their groups to start working on their challenges. One of the challenges was called Hack the Hassle, and the purpose was to build an innovative product to tackle an everyday challenge that was personal, or industry-based, and to create a solution that ’hacks’ it. The aims were to focus on functionality, security and creativity, and to look at what the liabilities might be in the solution and what could be done to alleviate these risks. The other challenge was called Hack the Strat, which involved addressing a quantitative finance challenge.
I asked some attendees what they hoped to get out of the Hackathon. Lulu, who studies Computer Science at the University of Manchester, came to the hackathon "to gain some insight and advice from the careers forum". Cyan, a second-year Computer Science student at UCL, had also come to the event to learn, and acknowledged that she had "learnt a lot about working together to come to a solution, and really enjoyed the process so far".
On Sunday afternoon, there were 17 presentations, of which 8 were shortlisted, and then the final winners were announced in a closing ceremony.
Ivana Drobnjak, Professor of Computational Healthcare in UCL’s Computer Science department, gave a keynote speech in which she highlighted that the rise of AI will inform culture and work life over the next ten years, but that there’s a problem with this if AI is biased against women. There is a lack of representation as everything is by design and if it is designed by men, there are inequalities.
She ended her speech by saying, "Don’t opt out. You can have it all," echoing Clemence’s words on Saturday.
The first-place winners of the Fintech challenge, Jiwoo Seo, Aliya G., Berra Dogan, Grace Y., who did their project on Bollinger Bands and machine learning, told me that they found Ivana’s speech inspirational. They also told me that the "Hackathon was quite special for finance especially because it set a goal that had assessment criteria," which they had previously not experienced, adding that they found the "process of researching was longer than coding."
Sindi iterated that she plans for this to be a recurring event - and that it should be a staple for future students. She likened it to Imperial, who have their annual IC Hack , which is extremely popular, and told me that she wants to establish that same sense of belonging and for Minerva’s Hack to be long-lasting. She also pointed to the value of Hackathons in practice - MCD Capital, one of the weekend’s sponsors, itself started from a Hackathon.
Professor Elaine Pimentel, Associate Professor in Programming Principles, Logic, and Verification at UCL, introduced the Hackathon to participants on Saturday. In conversation with her, she praised the Minerva’s Hack team for creating a space for "women [to feel empowered to do a hackathon or to do an independent project". We also talked about how the UCL Computer Science Department is the only one on a national level that has been awarded the Athena Swan Award with a Gold accreditation.
This Athena Swan Framework reflects the general improvements made so far, but Elaine acknowledges that the award "does not come for free" and that "there is a long way to go" in terms of achieving gender parity within STEM. And what better way to start heading that way than with a fun, meaningful and successful student-led Hackathon.
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