New York Citys Most Exciting Upcoming Hackathons

Hackathons, where groups of people meet and attempt to build some kind of digital creation, offer an exciting challenge to techies, coders, beginners, and innovators. New York City has a whole host of brilliant hackathons all year around, and here are some of our favorites coming up.

Flawless Hacks

Flawless Hacks is perhaps one of the greatest ideas for a techie get-together ever seen. This downtown-based hackathon is Beyonce-themed, meaning women of all ages are invited to get together and code to the sounds of Bey. The event is sponsored by Buzzfeed and held at the media company’s offices. Anyone who identifies as a woman or gender non-conforming is welcome at the hackathon, although under 18s need a signed parental consent form. Beginners are also welcome and there are special workshops for those who can’t code throughout the day. The 2018 hackathon is to be held on April 7. It’s free to attend and runs for 12 hours.

Design Your Revolution

Design Your Revolution is a three-day hackcamp for low-income high-school youth of color in New York. Over the three days, students learn about computer science, social justice, and business thinking, and acquire skills like coding, entrepreneurship, product and business development, and innovation. The event is held on the weekend of February 3 and is free to attend to students.

Monthly Music Hackathon

This is a series of hackathons held every month in Manhattan. The February event focuses on the science of music, and explores music across biology, physics, psychology, and neuroscience. Students, musicians, and educators are as welcome as hackers to this event, which is free to attend but, like all hackathons, you have to sign up in advance.

Coding usually plays a large part in hackathons

Fishackathon

You can have a hackathon about almost anything, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that New York hosts one about fish. This is a global hackathon with a local chapter in New York. The event takes place from February 10 to 11, and aims to find solutions to help make Earth’s waters, aquaculture, and fisheries more sustainable. The event costs around $8-12 to attend and will take place at the General Assembly building in New York’s Silicon Alley area. There is a competitive element to the hackathon, and the best teams will receive prizes.

Hack the Genome

Health and wellness apps are always extremely popular, and Microsoft, LifeNome, and Sequencing.com are looking to make them better by introducing data obtained from an app user’s genes. The Hack the Genome hackathon, held in New York on February 24–25, will challenge teams to make the best possible apps that encompass the gene data of users. The winning teams will receive prizes for their apps.

About the author

Peter Ward

Tech Editor

Peter was born in Birmingham, England and was raised in North Wales. He studied journalism at the University of Sheffield before moving to Dubai, where he worked for several business magazines. After three years in the Middle East, Peter moved to New York to earn his master's degree in business journalism from Columbia University Journalism School. He has since written for international publications such as Bloomberg, The Economist and Newsweek. In his spare time Peter loves to play and watch soccer, go to the movies, read, and play video games.