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A Hackathon to Support Girls in Tech

Girls In Tech Hackathon

Inspired by his volunteering experiences on the YES program, Ramiz Rizqallah organized a hackathon in collaboration with TeensInAI to celebrate International Women’s Day. TeensInAI is an initiative that provides students with opportunities to learn more about the artificial intelligence field. With Ramiz’s educational pursuits in software engineering, he was invited by Elena Sinel, the CEO of TeensInAI, to serve as a lead organizer for their #GirlsInAI2021 hackathon.

Ramiz Rizqallah

A “hackathon” is an event for people to engage in collaborative computer programming together. From March 5–14, Ramiz served as the lead organizer for Palestine. To ensure that the hackathon was cyber-secure, Ramiz developed a discord server moderation bot called "Conan.” The goal of the #GirlsinAI2021 Hackathon was to motivate Palestinian girls, ages 12-18, to learn more about artificial intelligence. Five of Ramiz’s friends from university volunteered to help him organize the hackathon, which has held on Zoom. Thirty-oine teenage girls from around the West Bank participated.

The hackathon included several workshops on various topics such as design thinking, business model canvas, python basics programming language, and AI ethics. Fifteen mentors led the sessions including Danny Bluestone, the founder and CEO of Cyber-Duck. The hackathon participants were challenged to find a solution utilizing AI to address a social issue caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The winning idea was an app that would be designed to indicate levels of domestic violence and bullying with the help of AI. The winning team for this idea won prizes sponsored by Cyberduck. The TeensInAI Palestine team will stay in touch with the winning team to mentor their work so that they are ready for international Demo Day in April. 

Ramiz says, “This hackathon has been a great experience for me as it improved my leadership skills. It also motivated me to share the knowledge and experience I've gained to benefit others. This hackathon has definitely helped my community in terms of teaching many participants basics of AI, and coding, and empowering females in the tech field.”

Ramiz Rizqallah (YES 2016–2017, West Bank, placed with ASSE in Walters, OK)


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