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Over the course of 8 weeks, developers gathered virtually to participate in the Microsoft Azure Hack for Social Justice event. The hackathon challenge statement was straightforward: design and build an application prototype that uses Azure to address a social justice issue. Participants were given access to Microsoft technical mentors, dedicated Azure environment, and self-paced learning resources. Although technology alone cannot solve complex societal issues, our hope is that participants will develop solutions that can help empower communities and drive change.
Over 500 participants registered for the hack, 300+ were from the U.S., and 6 winning projects were selected. Check out these creations:
1st Place : Equitable Restroom Access for Gender Non-Conforming
Created by: Mahesh Babu (@smaheshbabu)
Provides safe restroom access for transgender, gender non-conforming, disabled individuals, and parents traveling with kids to find restrooms per their needs.
Azure Services Used: Azure Functions, Azure SendGrid
2nd Place: GetPro
Created by: Amina Fong (@fongamina), William Broniec (@1345613864), Zechen Lu (@tommylu123)
Web app that centralizes information and professional resources for underrepresented populations to help even the playing field in educational and career opportunities.
Azure Services Used: Azure App Services, Azure SQL Database
3rd Place: Legal Helper Bot
Created by: Murtada Ahmed
Not knowing the law and ones rights can expose already vulnerable groups to more discrimination and abuse. Legal Helper Bot was created to change that.
Azure Services Used: Azure Bot Services, Azure Storage
Honorable Mentions
Racial Bias and Score Prediction of COMPAS Score
Created by: Yuki Ao (@aoyingxue)
Inform people of the racial bias in the U.S. Justice system and give the offenders a chance to know their score level beforehand.
Created by: Farhan Mashud (@fm1539), Isfar Oshir (@iao233), Mohammed Uddin (@msu227)
App for low income students to receive free, high quality tutoring from tutor volunteers.
Created by: Aroma Rodrigues (@AromaRodrigues)
Subscribes to a news API to provide real time news on gender violence and tracks organizations, petitions, and initiatives
On behalf of the Microsoft U.S. Azure team, I’d like to sincerely thank all of the participants, and congratulate the winners on a job well done. Also, thank you to the mentors and judges who volunteered their time to give back to the community.
Next up: check out these new hackathons that are open for registration
- Microsoft Azure U.S. Hack for Accessibility (Jan 28 – Mar 15, 2021)
- Microsoft Azure AI Hackathon (Jan 26 – April 5, 2021)
Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.
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