founded by mit alumni
The idea of having student teams address issues of discrimination and racism started with MIT Black Alumni (BAMIT) in Washington, DC - frustrated by violence in the news, continued social and economic roadblocks to progress for minorities, and challenged by President Reif’s call to action: What Are We To Do?
Led by Elaine Harris (MIT ’78) and Lisa Egbuonu-Davis (MIT ’79), members of BAMIT, the Harvard and MIT data science communities, Women in Machine Learning, and the MIT Alumni Association worked jointly with Microsoft to organize an ideathon at Microsoft’s New England Research & Development center. The ideathon was also promoted as an optional pre-event for the Women in Data Science Conference.
MIT senior leadership has enthusiastically supported this work. A Hacking Discrimination Fund has been set up at MIT to further this work, and Sloan for Inclusion partners with Hacking Discrimination each year to continually engage students in tackling these issues.
Why hack?
Simple: to build momentum and create change. We don't think anyone can 'cure' discrimination. The issues are essentially disorders of human perception and their aggregate effects in societies. We are looking to identify pieces that we can impact and use technology to:
1. Bear witness- Document instances of discrimination or direct violence that can be used for legal recourse and for future advocacy
2. Connect for change- Establish mentor relationships
3. Generate momentum- Get like-minded people together to work on a common cause in a tangible and interesting way to lead to mobilization, especially of young people.
The hackathon construct is intended to provide a high impact mechanism for meaningful dialog, learning, networking and solution development. Our hope is that prototypes will be developed and commercialized to have far reaching, positive impact.