Ground Up - Chicago All Women Hackathon

To launch Chicago Tech Week, Lumina House is hosting an all women hackathon in the Windy City. The ground was far from ideal when Chicago built the first skyscraper, but we built skyline giants anyway. This type of ambition starts from humble foundations but grows, to shake industries and transform innovation, testing the limits of technology. The same instinct lives in the city’s industry, art, activism, and tech scene today. It lives in the women who have always been building, but often without the room or support to show it. Lumina House is creating that room and providing the scaffolding for women to build as big as they can. Join us for a day of coding and creation, centered around how women can turn their ideas into something real and scalable. Draw from what you know, what you’ve lived, what Chicago has given you, and build something that grows beyond it. Let the city be your blueprint and scale ideas to new heights. You have the foundation, now see how far you can reach. About Lumina House Lumina House is a global residency for women working across technology, research, engineering and the creative industries. When women are absent from the design process, entire systems inherit blind spots. Lumina House exists as a response to that idea: creating spaces with rare talent density, with women who are actively building and developing the new infrastructures for the next wave of innovation. More Information Who is this for? Non-technical and technical women. You do not need to know how to code or have built a tech product before. If you have, great, if not we have mentors who can help. We encourage teams from different sectors and experience levels so you can learn from each other. We want this to be the space for women to experiment and break ground on new ideas. What to expect? 10:00 am - 10:30 am: Saturday Kick Off Breakfast 10:30 am - 11:00 am: Team formation 11:00 am - 12:00 pm: Dedicated time to work 12:00 pm - 01:00 pm: Lunch 01:00 pm - 04:00 pm: Final Work Sprint 04:00 pm Final submission due 04:30 pm - 5:00 pm: Panel 05:00 pm - 5:30 pm: Presentations 05:30 pm - 5:45 pm: Winners announced 05:45 pm - 6:00 pm: Closing farewell Need Inspiration Before the Hackathon? Look to Chicago’s booming industries like Fintech, Transportation, Logistics, or Quantum. Solve problems you experienced while living in the city or tackle specific environmental or societal concerns. There is so much to explore and you have the support to build big.