The EmpowHERment Summit connects, honors, and inspires our current and future super-heroines in technology. What does it take to be a super-heroine? It's simple; join our movement by committing to disrupt the male-dominated tech environment as we know it today. The event brings together female engineering students at the college level, the Qualcomm engineering community, various non-profit organizations that are improving STEM education, and university partners for a two day summit experience. Student attendees will have an opportunity to enhance their powers by attending technical and/or developmental workshops, hearing from speakers, networking with non-profits, and growing their women in tech community. Perhaps the best part of all, our attendees will have a chance to "hack for good" by solving the real-world problems of our participating non-profits.
For a complete list of our speakers, workshops, and hackathon projects visit our website at https://empowherment.qualcomm.com/.
Eligibility
Participant Profile
- Participants must be currently pursing a BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering
- Attendees must be female college students that are currently interning at Qualcomm OR whom were referred by one of our participating non-profits, university partners, or interns using a top secret referral code
- Participants should be passionate about solving the gender gap in tech and may therefore play an active role in various organizations on and off campus to help move the needle (e.g., Society of Women Engineers, Women in Computer Science, Women in Electrical & Computer Engineering, National Society of Black Engineers, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, mentorship programs, etc.)
Teams
- Attendees will be required to work in teams of 4
- Participants will register their team name and declare a project of interest with the event organizers prior to the hackathon kicking off at 7 pm
Requirements
Categories
Hackers will have a chance to use their technical expertise to help solve the real-world problems of our participating event partners listed below. A complete list of project descriptions can be found on our website.
- Hope Bars International
- National Center for Women in Information Technology
- PinkThink
- Anita Borg Institute
- Girls Who Code
- Qualcomm's Thinkabit Lab
Submission Requirements
Our hope is that after the hackathon experience, our participating parters will be able to implement some of the solutions and recommendations of our attendees. In order to do so, our partners will need access to the code and project descriptions of our hack teams and therefore, we're asking participants to do the following:
- Each hacker needs to create an account on ChallengePost (it's free to register!)
- Each team must register their team name and members for our hackathon on ChallengePost
- Hackers will be asked to provide a brief description of their project along with linking any code via GitHub
Prizes
$11,460 in prizes
Best Overall Hackathon
You win! This team truly stood out amongst the hacker crowd. Looks like we've got some super-heroines in tech on our hands.
Best Rookie Hack
Newbie prize! At least 50% of this team is attending a hackathon for the first time. Watch out world....here they come...
Best Fail
Womp, womp! This team had good intentions and a great solution but struggled on the execution of the project. You'll be a force to be reckoned with in the future.
Judge Favorite
We'll poll your peers and solicit their feedback to determine this prize category. Yes, it's that simple!
Best Hack: Girls Who Code
Best hack on the Girls Who Code project
Best Hack: Hope Bars
Best hack on the Hope Bars project
Best Hack: NCWIT
Best hack on the NCWIT project
Best Hack: PinkThink
Best hack on the PinkThink project
Best Hack: Anita Borg Institute
Best hack on the Anita Borg Institute project
Best Hack: Qualcomm Thinkabit Lab
Best hack on the Qualcomm Thinkabit project
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges

Jonathan Brasted
Mobile Learning Center/Qualcomm

DanAnh Do
Curriculum Developer/Girls Who Code

Joy Harris, Ph.D.
Engineering for Social Innovation Center & Faculty/Georgia Institute of Technology

Terry Morreale
Associate Director & CTO/NCWIT

Rose Robinson
Community Engagement & Development/Anita Borg

Makeda Ricketts
Founder/PinkThink

Youwen Ouyang
Faculty/California State University San Marcos
Judging Criteria
-
Innovation
The "out of the box" factor. How creative or novel is the idea? -
Execution
How well executed was the idea? Evaluate the team on the completeness and quality of the solution. -
Relevance to Hack Prompt & Partnering Org
What is the likelihood that the partnering organization will fully implement the idea or at minimum some form of the solution? -
Communication
How well did the team convey their idea and proposed solution during the oral presentation and demo of their project? -
Overall Rating
"The total package". How did the team perform overall? Did the hackers offer a complete solution to the problem? How well did they work as a team? Did they go above and beyond the required solution?
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