In partnership with West Virginia University’s Reed College of Media, MediaShift produced a Women’s Hackathon on Diversifying AI on November 9 to 11, 2017. Key speakers at the kickoff Symposium and Hackathon included Troll-Busters.com founder Dr. Michelle Ferrier, venture coach Jennifer Ellis-Juncaj, USC’s Amara Aguilar, and Megan Tiu, the COO of Frenzy, an early stage artificial intelligence startup.
Students developed and pitched ideas for startups in artificial intelligence and media, while helping to bridge one important gap, like the gender gap, accessibility gap or rural / urban gap. The winning team was Team Mak, a group of women who pitched a startup called Context, a reading app for children with learning disabilities that adjusts the reading material depending on the disability of each child.
Coverage
How the Women’s Hackathon at WVU Tackled Diversity in AI, by Kassy Taylor, MediaShift
Hack the Gender Gap: A Woman’s Hackathon on Diversifying AI Begins in Media Innovation Center, by Kayla Gagnon, DA Online
WVU Reed College and MediaShift Aim to Diversify Artificial Intelligence, by Conor Griffith, Exponent Telegram
Trollbusters Founder Part of AI Panel at WVU Hackathon, by Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University
Hack the Gender Gap: A Women’s Hackathon on Diversifying AI at WVU, info page at MediaShift
Videos
All videos produced by WVU Reed College of Media:
Photos
Feedback
“I enjoyed the symposium and Hackathon. I would love to see more events like it at WVU and to participate in it again. I learned a lot and it will help me in my future.” – Caitlin Cuomo, WVU
“I loved being able to bring the Kanawha County Girls Who Code Club to the Hackathon. It was a valuable experience for the girls who got to see women in tech in action! Thank you so much for the invitation. We loved the experience!” – Emma Gardner
“I like the idea of running with the theme for women. AI was appropriate for our always-expanding world of technology. Anything related to those concepts going forward would be great!”
“In future events, I might keep it exclusively to college aged or slightly above participants. The age range in groups somewhat hindered my group’s progress.”
“I felt the students needed more time to develop their idea and presentation.”