A different kind of marathon

Hackathons, creative marathons where creators come together to build new things, have a reputation for being primarily male-dominated, discouraging many women and other minority groups from participating. Technica, a student organization on a mission to tackle the lack of diversity in tech, is the world’s largest all-women and nonbinary hackathon in the world - which we were proud to host in our very own Reckord Armory for the 3rd year in a row.

Faatemah Mallick and Shruti Das, Co-Executive Directors of Technica, describe Technica as a weekend full of learning, coding, creating, and contributing to the growth of women and minorities in tech. For 24 hours, 872 women and non-binary individuals gathered in the Armory to exercise their imagination and technical prowess to create interesting and innovative hacks.

They say the large, open space of the Reckord Armory Gym offers a great collaborative environment where participants can meet other hackers and work together while the lecture halls in the basement allow the group to host educational workshops. As with most aging buildings across campus, one limitation is the challenge of wheelchair accessibility. The group will be collaborating with RecWell this summer to investigate possible ways to improve accessibility for future events.

Mallick and Das describe Jason Hess, Assistant Director for Intramural Sports and the Reckord Armory, as instrumental in facilitating collaboration with fire department, police, EMT, risk management, and catering teams while Laura Bent, Coordinator for Facility Reservations and Event Services, made it easy to coordinate all the moving parts of an event of this scale.

“We are so grateful to have such a strong working relationship with RecWell and are looking forward to hosting Technica 2019 at the Armory!”