Wired up at FemmeHacks

Penn President Amy Gutmann and Penn Engineering Dean Vijay Kumar stopped by FemmeHacks at the Pennovation Center Feb. 9. The annual event is a beginner-friendly collegiate hackathon for women-identifying people with an interest in computer programming, and featured a day of all-levels workshops Feb. 8. The event is sponsored by Penn’s Women in Computer Science student organization. 

Amy Gutmann sitting on the steps at the Pennovation center with attendees of FemmeHacks
President Amy Gutmann (front row, center) with School of Engineering and Applied Science Dean Vijay Kumar (front row, third from right) and attendees of FemmeHacks 2019 at Pennovation Works on Feb. 9. 
Amy Gutmann and Vijay Kumar chat with FemmeHacks participants
Gutmann and Kumar talk with FemmeHacks participants.
Gutmann and Kumar sit with student participants and listen to them describe work
FemmeHacks’ goal is to inspire, teach, and empower women in the Philly tech community, and create an ecosystem of technical women in the field. 
Students at Femmehacks work intensely on their laptops
The two-day event included beginner and intermediate workshops on Friday, Feb. 8, on web dev, hardware, and GitHub (a code collaboration tool). On Feb. 9, participants engaged in all-day hacking with mentoring engineers and side events. 

Photos by Avi Steinhardt