HackIllinois Presents
HackThis
this.hack = education
August 7 - August 15, 2020
Our Hackathon Focus: Advancing Virtual Education
Our Projects:
Many Approaches towards One Goal
You might create an educational tool for students and educators to improve the virtual learning experience. Or, you might make a data visualization or other analysis to highlight and suggest possible solutions to pressing issues in remote learning. It's time to HackThis!
Our Resources:
For Your Learning
Access to mentors from industry, education and business for your projects. Tons of workshops to expand and strengthen attendee abilities.
Our Experience:
Building Educational Tools
Talks and Panels to inspire, excite, and educate as you work. Mini Events to help build new connections and have some fun.
THE EVENT
HackThis is a fully virtual, education focused hackathon taking place between August 7th and August 15th, 2020. The first weekend will feature a 48-hour hack sprint, similar to a typical hackathon. The following weekdays will be an opportunity to refine your product with continued support from mentors. At our event, you will be given resources to develop solutions to enhance virtual learning on a global scale, while having the opportunity to hear from leaders in education, attend workshops, and consult mentors from different backgrounds. HackThis is a great way to gain new technical skills and collaborate with other students, with a common goal of innovation for social good!
JOIN US
Follow us on Twitter (@HackIllinois) and Instagram (@HackIllinois) to be notified of our event updates!
In terms of the platforms you will need to have access to, we’ll be connecting mentors and attendees on Discord! As we approach the event, we’ll post a link on our social media to the discord server so that you can join and introduce yourself.
Twitter 
This is where we’ll be posting main updates with regards to our schedule, additions to our event, and other things we come up with! We’ll also be using it during the event to make updates with any schedule changes and send out reminders for workshops and other mini-events starting out!
Instagram 
This is where we’ll be posting more of the fun, behind-the-scenes aspects of our event! You’ll get an opportunity to see the work that goes into making the event a possibility and also get insights from staff and mentors about what makes HackThis a one-of-a-kind hacking experience.
Discord 
Our discord server will be the main hub for our event. You’ll use this to find and communicate with teammates and other attendees, access our workshops and mini-events, and get help from mentors—all through one centralized platform.
FAQ
What kind of projects can I work on?
We have two different project tracks! The first is the traditional hackathon style project, where you have a week to come up with a new solution related to improving virtual education/collaboration. The second is bring a project that you may have worked on previously, and work on fitting that project to the theme of education!
What if I don’t have that much programming experience?
People of all programming levels are welcome! You’ll have the chance to gain technical experience through workshops and work with mentors who can guide you with your project idea.
How do applications work?
There is no application! Just register using hackthis.hackillinois.org/register and we will send you more information about our event - everyone is accepted! Registration is open until the end of the event. In order to join our Discord server and submit a project, you will need to register! You must be 18+ to register.
Where can I go for more information?
Take a look at our website for more information about our event! If you have any further questions, feel free to reach out to us through our social media channels, or email us at contact@hackillinois.org!
What do I need as a virtual hacker?
You won’t need much to get the most out of your HackThis experience. All it’ll take is:
- A Github account, to share and collaborate on your code with others.
- A Discord account to work and engage with teammates, mentors, and other attendees.
Why is HackThis a week long?
With an ambitious goal of solving wide-reaching problems in the area of virtual education, we believe that a longer hacking time of a week will help each project and group go through the full development cycle to create the most refined prototype—or complete product—as possible. An online event is also free of the time and space constraints of a physical event, meaning that we’re able to host and maintain a unique experience for all hackers throughout the week.
Can I work in a team? Alone?
Yes! HackThis allows teams of up to size 8. While teamwork is highly encouraged to ensure the most effective ideation and development over the span of the event, with a discord channel dedicated towards finding teammates, individual submissions are also allowed.
Speakers
Andrew Sutherland
Founder and CTO of Quizlet
Andrew Sutherland is the founder of Quizlet, an education software company that serves millions of students and teachers every month. Andrew started Quizlet while taking a high school French class, continued working on it studying computer science at MIT, and has grown it to a successful company with more than 200 employees.
Elizabeth Engele
Co-Founder and Executive Director of MakerGirl
Elizabeth (Lizzy) enjoys creating meaningful solutions for complex socio-cultural challenges through using her knowledge of design, entrepreneurship, and sales. Her biggest accomplishment is educating over 4,000 girls in STEM through MakerGirl a not for profit she co-founded in 2015 which hosts 3D printing workshops for 7-10 year old girls. She’s currently earning her Master’s at IIT’s Institute of Design in Chicago, and prior to that, she learned how to ask difficult questions and build meaningful business relationships as an Account Executive at LinkedIn.
Julia Haried
Co-Founder and Executive Director of MakerGirl
Julia M. Haried is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of MakerGirl and works full-time as a Consultant at Deloitte Consulting. Currently Julia lives in the midwest downtown Chicago, loves providing exceptional customer service to her clients at Deloitte and customers at MakerGirl, and enjoys playing Catan and tennis with her family and friends. Julia strives for people to be happy and healthy, and brings this to life everyday with food, conversations, and actions.
Pamela Fox
Computing Content Creator at Khan Academy
Pamela Fox loves to learn, teach, and create. In her role at Khan Academy, she has created more than 140 hours of computer science and programming content. In her volunteer hours, she enjoys teaching for non-profits - like GirlDevelopIt, TEALS, GirlsWhoCode, and CoderDojo. Pamela is also a software engineer. At Khan Academy, she helps develop the interactive platform for teaching programming. Before KA, she was one of the first frontend engineers at Coursera and one of the first developer advocates at Google, where she worked on the Maps and Wave APIs. Pamela earned her bachelors and masters in Computer Science, with minors in 3d animation and linguistics, from the University of Southern California.
David Hardy
Managing Partner and Vice President of People and Culture for Education Elements
David Hardy Jr. is a Managing Partner and Vice President of People and Culture for Education Elements. Prior to this, David led the state turnaround efforts of the second lowest-performing district in Ohio. Under his leadership, Lorain City Schools received its highest performance marks in nearly 25 years. Previously, David also served in many roles as a public educator and leader, including the Deputy Superintendent of Academics for St. Louis Public Schools and Executive Director for Regional Achievement in Camden, New Jersey. He earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from Colgate University, his Master’s degree in Urban Education from Teachers’ College, Columbia University and will complete his doctorate from Columbia University in 2020.
Greg Baughes
Mental Health Advocate and Manager at Twilio
Greg Baugues is a mental health advocate and leads a developer relations team at Twilio where his mission is to inspire and equip developers who build the future of communications. Greg left the University of Illinois without a degree in 2003, in part because of his struggle with bipolar and ADHD.
Karl Mehta
Founder and CEO of EdCast
Karl Mehta is a serial entrepreneur, author, investor, engineer, and civil servant with over 20 years of experience in founding, building, and funding technology companies in the U.S. and international markets. He is currently Founder & CEO of EdCast Inc., a next-generation knowledge platform company and former venture partner at Menlo Ventures, a leading VC firm of Silicon Valley. Karl also served as a White House Presidential Innovation Fellow, selected by the Obama Administration during the inaugural 2012-13 term. Previously, he was the Founder & CEO of PlaySpan Inc., acquired by Visa Inc. He is also the founder of several non-profit's including Code For India and Grassroots Innovation, and author of “Financial Inclusion at the Bottom of the Pyramid”
Our Team
Abhinav
Advai
Akhil
Ali
Alyssa
Anne
Ayush
Beth
Cassidy
Heesoo
Jeff
Marcin
Megha
Neha
Pallavi
Patrick
Raghav
Rishin
Samraj
Shresta
Yash
Yuheng
Sponsors
