Hack for Humanity DC Buildathon

Join us for a one-day civic tech build event bringing together technologists, designers, founders, students, and community members to build ideas that can improve people’s lives. Attendees will choose from four humanity-focused topics: health, education, environment, and policy, form teams of 3–5, and spend the day working on an idea together. We’ll provide guiding questions for each topic to help teams identify problems they’re interested in working on. Volunteers will also be available throughout the day to help with brainstorming, design, and building. You don’t need to have a polished product by the end of the day. Your final submission can be a working prototype, clickable mockup, or well-developed concept. ##Tools & Resources## All attendees will receive 100 Lovable credits for the month and can use Lovable to build their projects during the event. Unstuck Labs, a startup founder studio, will also provide access to its tools for attendees who would like to try them as part of their building process. Awards: Winning teams will receive prizes, including gift cards and credits, and may be featured on our social media. Building access: Please bring a physical, government-issued photo ID with you. A physical ID is required to enter the building. Come with an idea, or just come ready to build. You don’t need to have a team beforehand—we’ll help you find one. Special thanks to Northeastern for providing the venue space, MLH (Major League Hacking) for sponsoring the credits, and Unstuck Labs for food and beverages, Founder Institute for promoting the event!

Challenges

Best Use of the Google Gemini API

It’s time to push the boundaries of what's possible with AI using Google Gemini. Check out the Gemini API to build AI-powered apps that make your friends say WHOA. So, what can Gemini do for your hackathon project? * Understand language like a human and build a chatbot that gives personalized advice * Analyze info like a supercomputer and create an app that summarizes complex research papers * Generate creative content like code, scripts, music, and more Think of the possibilities… what will you build with the Google Gemini API today?

Build for Humanity: Tech for Real-World Impact

Build a solution that tackles a meaningful challenge in health, education, the environment, or public policy. Your goal is to identify a real problem, understand who it affects, and create a thoughtful prototype that could make a tangible difference. Your project can be a working application, AI-powered tool, platform, prototype, or other creative technical solution. We’re looking for projects that combine meaningful impact, thoughtful technical execution, realistic feasibility, responsible design, and originality. A complicated solution isn’t automatically a better one-use technology intentionally and be prepared to explain why your approach is the right fit for the problem. By the end of the hackathon, you should be able to show what you built, who it helps, how it works, and where it could go next.

Add Submission

Submissions aren’t open for this event.